New Beginnings
by swtIris
Summary: Chapter 9: “Logic is not the point here princess. This is not science, it’s dating. There’s no room for logic in dating.”
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters.

Chapter 1: Morning Musings

"Lena! Wake up! Don't make me get up there!" her mother yelled annoyed. Every day, it was the same thing. That girl could not get up for the life of her. "You need to come early, since it's your first day. Get up!" her mother yelled louder, shaking her head. Her daughter was really incorrigible. "NOW!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm up!" Relena said groggily as she lifted her warm blanket and rolled of the bed. She went straight to the window and open up her blinds. It was a habit. Every morning ever since she was very little, she would get up, open her window, and stick her head out.

In that moment, everything in the world was perfect. The morning breeze played with her hair, while the warm, rays of the sun tickled her face. The smell of morning dew permeated the air and she lost herself in her thought with nothing but the sweet melodies of the birds to entertain her. Each morning was a new day and yesterday was only a memory.

_Flashback_

_"Mommy!" a young girl of about eight years old yelled with panic in her voice. She was running down the stairs wearing a white cotton sleeping gown with pink floral patterns, her shoulder-length blonde hair was in disarray from a night of turning and tossing in her sleep. "Mommy, where are you?"_

_"I'm in the kitchen, honey" her mother said sweetly but hoarse, trying to conceal the fact that she has recently been crying and yelling. "Go back to bed. It's only five in the morning. You don't have to go wake up for school until seven."_

_"But mommy, I heard yelling!" the sweet little girl answered worriedly. She walked hurriedly through the hallway and entered the country-style kitchen of her home. Even at a young age, she knew that something was wrong and her mother was hurt. However, nothing could prepare her for the sight that beheld her eyes at that moment. In the middle of the kitchen, was her mother sitting on the floor, battered and exhausted. Her eyes were red and puffy from tears and the skin surrounding her left eye was slightly darker than the rest of her face. There was a cut in her lower lip and the girl's eyes followed the drop of blood that trailed down her chin to her neck until it landed on the once angelic white silk nightgown. The nightgown was no longer the symbol of virginal innocence that a newly-wed virgin would wear on her honeymoon. It was now tattered, the left strapped violent ripped and the other hanging down loosely on her mother's shoulder. _

_The mother and daughter stared at each other closely, memorizing the emotions that played in their eyes. Each wanted to turn away, the emotion being too much too handle. The girl, too young to be introduce to these emotions. The mother, ashamed of herself for letting her little princess see her in this state. However, neither of them could turn away. _

_End of Flashback_

Today would be her first day of school in this new town, Autumn Hill. Autumn Hill was similar to every suburban town. There were many different subdivision, with their two-story houses and perfectly manicured lawns. There were the commercial areas where the mall, theaters, stores, and restaurants were located. Autumn Hill was nothing out of the ordinary. It was a peaceful town, and peace was exactly what she needed.

"Lena, downstairs in five seconds or I'm pouring a bucket of ice cold water on your sleeping head!" her mother yelled, getting her back to reality.

Her mother was very amusing during the mornings. She smiled at herself one last time and closed the window. What should she wear this morning? Relena wasn't a very high-maintenance girl, but she knew that her mother would have a fit if she came down in sweats. Her mother was very preoccupied with appearances and presentations. Since it was the first day of school, she thought that she would appease her mother and somewhat fix herself up this morning.

Relena picked out a white knee-length skirt from and a pink sleeveless shirt that flared at the bottom with red stitching on the edges. She sat on her vanity and brushed her golden locks that ended just above her belly-button. Make-up was never her thing. She never understood how girls could put all that gunk in her face, so she stuck with her cherry flavored lip gloss and headed downstairs.

"Wow" her mother said in awed, "Is that my daughter?" Katerina had fixed a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes on the table.

"Don't get use to it" Relena said as she sat down and started chowing down. "I didn't feel like listening to you nag this morning about my lack of fashion sense. Plus, I knew there would be extra nagging today since it's first day and everything"

"Ha,ha." Katerina said sarcastically as she sat down to join her daughter for breakfast. "Don't worry I never take these days for granted. I cherish all the days that you decide to dress up a little." Her eyes were glowing and there was a smirk on her face. She loved these early morning banters that she and her daughter would get into. Her daughter was her princess, her everything. Even though they didn't exactly agree in the fashion department, she loved her daughter dearly and accepted her for who she is. She really didn't find anything wrong with Relena's choice of comfort clothes, but she loved nagging her about it.

"It's glad to know that you notice and appreciate your darling daughter." Relena and her mother had a special relationship. They had been through so much together. Their relationship went beyond a normal mother-daughter relationship. They turn to each other for strength and comfort. She could tell her anything and she does. There were no secrets between them. They often stayed up at nights cuddled up in her mother's bed, talking and musing about their life. They weren't just mother and daughter, they were best friends.

"So, am I driving you to school today?"

"Yeah, I'm not walking!"

"Well, maybe I should let you walk. You can use the exercise. You got lazy over the summer."

"I don't need exercise. I have a high metabolism."

"All right, all right. I was only joking. Finish up or we'll both be late. Your not the only one going somewhere." It was her first day of work, too. She was extremely nervous and excited because this was the first time she would be working ever since she was married. Her husband made her quit when they got married, because it wasn't needed. Her husband, or her now ex-husband, was financially stabled. She was going to return to being a nurse. However, she wanted to start off slow since she hadn't worked in a long time so she decided to find a job in a small clinic. She found a nursing job at Autumn Hill Pediatric Clinic. It was a quaint little clinic in a new town, just what she was looking for. She would be the nurse for Dr. Elizabeth Yuy.

"Here we are, princess" Katerina said as she pulled up in front of the school. "Scared?"

"A little" Relena answered as she looked at her school with her eyes wide open. "It's a bit larger and quite a few more people"

"Yeah, but you'll do fine."

"Uh-uh"

"Okay, here is one of my motherly pep-talks." Katerina said as she shifted to her side so she was facing Relena. "Everything will be okay. You're a beautiful and smart girl. I know that you're not a social butterfly and it might take you a while to make real friends, especially since there are so many more people here. But you will make them princess because you are a beautiful person inside and out. They would be crazy if they didn't want to get to know you. So you go out there, and charm those kids."

"I love you mom" Relena said seriously.

"I love you too honey. Now give your mom a goodbye kiss" Katerina leaned over and Relena kissed her on the cheek. "Call me if anything goes wrong and I will come and get you. Okay."

"Nothing will go wrong mom. It's just school"

"That's my girl."

"Have fun at work." Relena added as she got out of the car. "Bye!" She watched her mother drove off and waited until the car turned the corner before she faced the school.

'Here goes nothing' she though. 'Autumn Hill High, here I come'

Author's Note: This is my first fan fiction. I would really appreciate any feedback or criticism. So please review and tell me how I'm doing with this so called writing.


	2. Chapter 2: First Day

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter 2: First day

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" Relana requested exasperatedly. 'Oh, you got to be kidding me.' Right there in the blocking the entrance was a couple ravaging each other like a man would gulp down water after being stranded in the middle of the desert for a month. They seriously needed a room. A girl of about five feet and five inches with shoulder length brown hair and blonde streaks had her arms around a guy whose hands were comfortably palming her behind. The guy was just little over 6 feet and his hair was parted so one side covered one of his eye. The couple seemed oblivious to their surroundings and letting their hormones control their bodies. It seemed like the girl was having a hard time trying to keep her foot on the ground. Her leg appeared to want to wrap itself around the guy's waist.

'This is just my luck' Relena thought. 'The doorway just happened to be blocked by sex-addict kids on my first day of school. Whoever invented high school seriously needed therapy. I mean whoever thought of putting a couple thousands of crazy teenagers with hormones bouncing off the wall in one small building seriously needed professional help.' The couple would not budge and Relena looked at them, fuming. Her patience was running thin. She did not want to deal with this so early in the morning. Just when she was about to put all propriety aside and push through the couple, she was saved by a commanding voice coming from behind her.

"Barton, go take that somewhere else" the voice ordered. The couple surprisingly stopped, the girl hid her face on the crook of the guy, Barton's neck, while Barton looked behind Relena with a gleam in his eye and a smirk on his face.

"Not enjoying the show" Barton asked, very amused.

"I need a good dose of coffee before I can handle your hallway escapades," the voice retorted.

"Touché, Yuy." Barton answered and then grabbed the girls hand and walked into one of empty rooms. "I have some unfinished business," he added and winked at Yuy. Relena stood there staring, wide eyed and her mouth agape, at the door that Barton and the girl just walked into. She was shock at the exchange that has just occurred in front of her. Everyone in this school was whack. That guy Barton was heading off into some empty room to do god knows what and the other guy, Yuy, seemed to find these things everyday normal occurrences.

'Oh, my gosh' Relena thought as she covered her mouth with her right hand. 'What have I gotten myself into. Oh! Yuy is still behind me. He must think I'm a real idiot now. Way to make a good impression, Relena.' Relena slowly turned her body to see the face behind the voice. She was embarrassed about looking so sheltered and innocent from the way she reacted to the situation. She kept her eye on the floor and when she was completely facing the guy, she slowly raised her eye. The guy was wearing white Nike sneakers, not brand new but just slightly used. His jeans were baggy, but not too baggy that it looked like it would fall any second. He was wearing a plain white shirt that seem to sculpt to his body. Her eyes went all the way up to his neck, and then her scrutiny stopped. She couldn't look at his face. What if he was laughing at her? Or maybe he thought that she was weird or some kind of lunatic? No, she decided right then and there that she didn't want to know what awaited her. She turned her head and was about to walk away, but she felt hard, callused hands holding her chin, softly but firm. He rotated her face so that she was staring right into the deepest blue eyes that she has ever seen.

If she didn't look like an idiot before, then she definitely looked like it now. She was completely mesmerized by his eyes, that she could not help but stare.

"Are you okay?" Yuy asked concerned as he removed his hands of her chin. Relena was finally knocked out of her reverie by his voice. She composed herself, straightening her posture and flattening the invisible wrinkles in her skirt.

"Yeah, I'm fine" she answered shyly while looking at the very interesting tree right behind Yuy. She was completely embarrassed. Not only did she reacted like a five year old, but she was staring at Yuy for god knows how long. This was not starting out to be a very good day. 'So much for fixing myself up and making a good impression. No dress can erase the impression that I just made with this guy.'

"Are you sure?" he contended.

"Yeah" she answered more firmly this time so Yuy would believe her and stop the interrogation.

"Okay" Heero said hesitantly. He took one last look at her and then walked off, leaving her behind in the entrance way.

"Name?" a sixty year old lady that sounded strangely like one of those creepy old people in scary movies croaked.

"Relena Isabella Dorlian"

"Grade"

"Eleventh, mam"

"Okay, here it is" she exlaimed, picking out a red folder from the filing cabinet that she was shuffling through. "Relena Isabella Dorlian from Stoney Creek, Maryland. Here's your schedule, assignment book, locker assignment and the school map. If you have any question, go to your counselor, Mr. Dursmond. His office is the next room down. You got all of that?"

"Yeah, I think so" Relena answered as she was going over in her head all the things the woman just said.

Relena was so busy looking at her "new student" package while walking down the hallway that she didn't notice the blonde man in a pink button down shirt and gray slacks until she found herself on top of him in the middle of the hallway.

"Oh my gosh. This is not my day" she said to herself as she stood up. "I am so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going. I was too busy looking over this crap. It's all my fault. I'm sorry."

"Don't sweat it princess." the blonde man smiled as he got up on his own. "No harm done. Now don't ruin that beautiful face with a frown. You new here"

"Yeah, I'm Relena" feeling a little better from the seemingly outgoing personality of the blonde man. 'He was cute, but definitely gay. All the cute and nice guys were always gay.'

"Ooooh, a newbie" he said excitedly. "I'm Quatre. Here I'll show you around" and he grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her down the hallway.

"Let's see, what should I show you. Oh, how stupid must I be. Let me see your schedule." Relena handed him her schedule hesitantly, Quatre's excitement was kind of scaring her.

"Pre-calc. Nazi teacher. Literature. Hard grader, but nice ass. Political Science. Get ready to catch up on sleep. Oh we have lunch together. Chemistry. Hope you get a nice lab partner. Choir. Awesome teacher, you'll have fun with the musical. And Study Hall." Quatre just gave her the low down on her schedule in like a minute. Relena stared at him. 'Man, he can talk fast."

"Ummm. Thanks for the info." Relena said warmly. She really appreciated Quatre's attention, even if he was a little bit overly ecstatic. He was nice, and his smile was really infectious.

"Come on, I'll walk show you your locker and walk you to your first class." Relena found herself being dragged down the hallway, again.

Herfirst three classes weren't that bad. Quatre was basically right on the money. The math teacher, Mrs. Linsdale was a nazi. Relena was convince that if you look closely, you can see a resemblance with Hitler. No one talked in that class and the use of calculators were prohibited at all times. 'What kind of math class doesn't use calculators nowadays. My hand is going to be cramping from doing long division.'

Literature and political science was a bore, but Mr. McKinley did have a nice ass. Kudos to Quatre for his well-researched information. 'He should really consider being the tour guide for the school or something'

Relena stepped into the crowded cafeteria buzzing with excitement. There was the football jock who was flexing his "newly-developed" muscles for his teammate. The cheerleaders fixing their hair, because god-forbid that a strand was out of place. The smart-kids concentrating on their homework, oblivious to the noise and havoc that surrounded them. Then there was the chess team hard at work in formulating a strategy for their next match. Her gaze landed at Quatre who was eagerly waving at her with, of course, a smile on his face.

'I want whatever his on. Gosh, that boy is way too happy.' Relena walked over to the round table. There were three other girls in the table, a red-head, a brunette, and someone with blueish-blackish hair.

"Hi" Relena greeted Quatre as she took a seat next to him. She smiled shyly at the rest of the girls.

"Everyone this princess over here is Relena" Quatre exclaimed. "Catherine, Sally, and Hilde." He pointed to each of them and formalities ensued. She discovered that she shared math and chemistry with Hilde and political science with both Sally and Catherine. The girls and Quatre were all really nice and friendly. Relena actually felt at ease. She befriended a couple of people and she hasn't made a fool of herself ever since this morning. Her day was looking up.

"So you see any cute guys roaming around the school?" Hilde asked as they walked to Chemistry class.

"Now that you mention it." Relena mused as the incident this morning returned to her train of thought. "There was this guy this morning. He had the deepest blue eyes and rowdy hair. You know the whole "mystery" thing going for him"

"Oh, him" Hilde said knowingly.

"What do you mean him?" Relena was now curious. "What's the deal with this guy? Does everyone know him or something?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Hilde answered.

"What, are you gonna leave me hanging?" Relena's curiosity was now at its peaked and she was not going to stop badgering until she got all the info.

"Okay, okay" Hilde conceded. "First we'll start with the social hierarchy of this school. Of course there are the jocks and the cheerleaders."

Relena nodded her head. This was nothing new. It was the same for every high school. This school would be strange if things weren't like that.

"Basketball is really big in this city," Hilde continued. "So of course the basketball stars would be the so called "popular" jocks. The star players are Wufei Chang, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, and Heero Yuy."

'Yuy and Barton. Those were the guys this morning' Relena thought. "So the guy this morning was Heero. That doesn't explain the _Oh, him_."

"I'm getting there" Hilde said smiling. "Be patient. Will ya!"

"Well, Duo is like any other teenage boy. He's had a couple of relationships here and there that lasted a couple of months or so. Wufei is going through his woman-hater stage. He had his heart broken by his long time girlfriend Meiran. It's quite a sad story. They were childhood friends and all. The summer before high school, they finally decided to date. They were so in love. At least that was what everyone thought."

"What happened?" Relena was now very interested at gossip of the school. 'Hey, if I'm going to be here for the rest of my high school career; I am entitled to know all the dirt.'

"Well, to cut a long story short. Wufei found her naked in bed with some guy during one of Trowa's party. The broke up and she moved a couple of monthslater because her dad got promoted or something. Wufei has been his grumpy self ever since."

"That's a sad story," Relena commented. Some people can be real jerks. If someone the love of her life cheated on her, she would be crying for weeks. She would probably be man-hating, too. She sympathized with Wufei.

"Trowa is another story" Hilde continued with her stats on the boys. "That boy just can't keep his pants closed. He has a different girl every week. The freshmen girls are just lining up to be his girl. Pathetic."

"That's just wrong. Why would the girls want to be treated that way?"

"They want to be popular. And for a week or so, they get to hang around Trowa and his friends. High school is very shallow. As you already know."

"I guess, but it just doesn't make sense sometimes." Relena could never understand how girls could just have sex. Sex was suppose to be beautiful, something you share with someone you love. It wasn't something you partake in so you could be popular for a week.

"Well, Heero is another story. Every girl wants a piece of him because like you said he has that whole dark, mysterious thing going for him. Your not the only one that noticed."

"I see, so he's like Trowa. A different girl every week" Relena felt kind of sad at this news.

"Wrong. Heero has never paid attention to any girl. He's not mean to them or anything. He just chooses to ignore them, so it comes off mean."

"I don't understand" Relena was now confused. "Is he gay?"

Hilde laughed at this question. "No the school body doesn't think so. Other people have asked that question and we voted: no he's not gay. We conclude that he's just looking for the "right-one".

"Oh." Relena felt relieved that Heero was not some sort of man whore. There was just something about his eye that captivated her this morning.

"Don't get your hopes up, though" Hilde added as she notice the look on Relena's face. "Sylvia, the captain of the cheerleading squad, has had her eye on Heero for quite a while now. She has made it her conquest to attain Heero Yuy and will trample anyone who gets in her way." Hilde gave her a warning look.

"You don't think I'm interested, do you?" Relena feigned. She put a shock facade to try and convince Hilde and herself that she wasn't interested in Heero Yuy. "Come on. I don't even know the guy and I just saw him this morning. Besides, I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now. There's too much on my plate."

"Okay." Hilde was not convinced, but dropped the subject since they just reached Chemistry.

Relena was glad that the subject of "Heero Yuy" was finally concluded. She really did not want to think about him right now. She wanted to focus on school, on chemistry. However, apparently this was not her day.

In the classroom was Heero Yuy sitting on his desk, tapping a pencil. Besides him, was a blonde girl wearing a pink halter top and white capri pants trying to get Heero's attention. 'That must be Sylvia. Let the fun in Chemistry begin.'

Author's Note: I hope I didn't offend anyone by how I portrayed Quatre. I just wanted him to be flamboyant. I know that I'm playing off homosexual stereotypes, but I just wanted a character that was easy going and fun loving. I don't mean anything by it. If you were offended though, I'm sorry and please let me know.

Thank you all to my reviewers from the last chapter. Your reviews really made my day and it encourage me to continue on with the story. Please everyone review my story. Your feedback and criticism really means a lot to me.

aphrael-chibi: I didn't plan on the mother/daughter relationship to be like Gilmore girls. However, as I re-read the Chapter I did notice that. I want to keep that closeness in this story. Although, you don't see it in this Chapter.

darkfairy88: Well, I didn't exactly give her age. However, you know that she's in eleventh grade. So that should be about 16 or so.

Reignashii: I'm glad that you found my story interesting. Please let me know when it's starting to get ridiculous.

BadScorpio: I can't wait to see what I have in store for the characters either. I really haven't decided on where this story is going. I'm just setting the background stuff right now.

PureAngelEnchantress: Well, she meets half the gang this Chapter. She'll prolly meet the rest of them next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3: First Day part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

**AN: **I'm sorry I took so long to update - my reasons are on my author's page. I just wrote them yesterday, so I don't feel like repeating myself. This update is actually early. I planned on updating in about a week or two. However, I decided to update early due to **CrimsonDragon010** - her review gave me the extra push I needed to work on this today and finally finish the chapter I started.(By the way, I didn't proofread this paper, so read at your own risk. Please feel free to point out any mistakes that you find.

**Author's Request:** I was wondering if anyone would be interested in editing my writing. I don't like to edit my own writing - and I make a lot of grammar mistakes, specially with the verb shifting and all. So if your interested please email me 3: First Day Part 2

Someone up above must really hate Relena. She was halfway done with school and there hasn't been any embarrassing moment since that morning. Lunch was fun – meeting the girls and listening to Quatre talk. Quatre was a riot. He was always checking out guys and critiquing their appearance.

"_Oooohhhhh, look at that guy" Quatre admonished and pointed to a guy on the other side of the cafeteria. He was wearing a lime-green and periwinkle polka-dot shirt that was too big for him and green corduroy pants. "That boy needs some serious fashion help. Green and purple just don't go. And since when was polka-dots in."_

_The girls were laughing their ass off. Relena felt bad about laughing at someone's appearance. However, the tone of Quatre's voice and his countenance was just too funny. Quatre was really hard in thought about the guy's outfit. He looked like he was planning out the guy's wardrobe in his head. _

"_Maybe you should go over there and offer your fashion advice" Catherine suggested jokingly. However, Quatre didn't seem to notice the sarcasm and started walking over to the guy. _

"_Oh, my gosh" Catherine said hastily as she grab hold of Quatre's arm and pulled him back down to his chair. "I was just joking. I don't think he would appreciate your advice." _

"_Why not?" Quatre seem really confuse by this revelation. "Why wouldn't he want my fashion advice? He really needs it. It will help him in the future. He needs to learn to stop letting his mom dress him. Come on, you guys. Look at that!"_

_He was staring at the boy, with a sad look in his face. He sincerely wanted to help this guy get some fashion sense. Relena was touched by his sincerity; even though, it was a little bit strange that someone would take another person's fashion sense so seriously. She sighed and shook her head. She should convince Quatre that the probability that the guy would want his fashion advice was slim to none, soon. Quatre seem to think this fashion emergency was a life or death situation. _

"_He'll probably take it the wrong way," Relena began. "Most people don't like it when something about themselves is criticized by others. Their feeling get hurt and their self-esteem decreases. Maybe there's a reason he dresses like that, like how some people use clothes to express themselves. He'll probably take your advice the wrong way."_

"_I guess" Quatre consented. "Whatever. It's his lost. I am a fashion guru."_

However, her carefree attitude and the ease she know felt about this school, would not last. Mr. Ferraro, the chemistry teacher, decided to assign lab partners.

"A large part of Chemistry is the lab. In order to better understand the difficult concept of chemistry, we will be doing a lot of laboratory activities pertaining to our lessons. Therefore, your lab work will be a large part of your grade. I will be assigning your lab partners."

The whole class groaned after hearing that they wouldn't be able to choose their own partners. A boy in the back with long, braided brown hair and wearing all black raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. – "

"Maxwell, Duo Maxwell" the braided boy said with large grin on his face. "Come on teach, can't we choose our own partners. We promise we won't burn your classroom up."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you can not sway my decision. I found that people are more likely to fool around when they are allowed to choose their own lab partner. Therefore, I am choosing your lab partner and that is final. Understand."

"Yes" the class grumbled.

"Okay, now that we have that straightened out. As I was saying, the lab is a big part of your grade. Thirty percent to be exact. Twenty percent will be allocated to homework. Fifty percent of your grade will be test. Your lab partner will be with you for the whole semester. In some circumstance, you might need to meet after school to finish your work or for projects. Does anyone have any questions."

Mr. Ferraro scanned the class, taking a second glance at Duo. No sound was made. The student body was still upset about the lab partners. Relena hoped that she would be partnered up with Hilde. They seemed to really get along, after the short amount of time of knowing each other. They could use this time to become better friends. She really didn't want to be partnered up with Heero or Sylvia.

Sylvia seemed exactly as Hilde portrayed her to be – and so much more. Relena knew that she would never get along with a girl like that. Sylvia seemed to be too preoccupied with her appearance. She would probably be too afraid to touch anything; the chance that it might ruin her perfectly-managed look. Relena was getting a headache just thinking about Sylvia.

Heero was better looking than she remembered. (Although, she just saw him this morning.) He was just sitting there, seemingly paying attention. He didn't seem to be aware of the girls giving him coy looks and subtle smiles. There was definitely an air of mystery about him. He didn't seem to be the mysterious guy, who stayed away from everyone because of a bad past or bad family life that he wanted to keep to himself. No, Heero Yuy wasn't that kind of mysterious. His mystery came from his quite personality and nonchalant attitude.

Relena tried very hard to keep looking at Mr. Ferraro while he was talking. She didn't want to be interested in Heero. It would just get complicated. Sure, he was good looking, and his body wasn't half-bad. However, that was all to it – it was just physical attraction and a silly crush. And Relena wanted it to stay that way. She couldn't learn to like him, she didn't want to. She wasn't ready. It was too soon. She needed to deal with her issues before … before, she can allow herself to be caught up in this teenage life all over again.

Mr. Ferraro sat behind his desk and picked up his class list. There was so much tension. Relena thought it was strange that people would care about something as trifle as lab partners so much. She had her preference, but it wasn't like it would be the end of the world if she got Heero or Sylvia. She would deal, she thought.

"Okay, when I call up your name I want you to stand up. Over there on top of Lab Table 1, is your laboratory packet. It contains the safety rule, expectations, your assigned lab table, and the directions for today's lab. After you pick up your packet, I want you to sit at your lab table with your partner. Read the directions carefully and quietly. We will start the lab shortly after everyone settles into their place."

Mr. Ferraro started calling out names: "LeBlanc and Mitchell, Young and Davis … Maxwell and Hilde,"

'I guess Hilde is out of the question' Relena thought. 'Oh well, Maxwell seems like a nice guy. I'm sure Hilde will be fine. Plus, he's pretty cute, if you like the goof-ball type. To come to think of it, Hilde and him would make a cute couple.' Relena smiled at the idea. The more she pictured them together, the cuter they got.

"Yuy and Catalonia." 'At least, I'm not with Yuy. Now if only Sylvia would get partnered up already, so I don't have to worry about being partnered up with her. "Scott and Brewer, Jackson and McKay . . . Noventa and Dorlian . . ."

Relena was a little upset about being partnered up with Sylvia. 'Of course, I would end up being partnered up with her. Faith always screws me over. I should really just stop wishing for things.' However, she figured she could deal. It was just Chemistry lab. Plus, she really didn't know Sylvia. You shouldn't judge people base on rumors and appearance. Relena convinced herself that it wouldn't be so bad being paired up with

Sylvia.

* * *

At the other side of the room, Hilde was giving her new friend a sympathetic look. She knew what kind of student and person Sylvia was. She had the liberty of going to the same school with her since pre-school. Plus, they only live a couple of houses away from each other. Sylvia was never one to get dirty. She would never play outside with the other kids because they were unsanitary and the games they played were filthy. Hilde grimaced as she remembered her childhood with Sylvia. Relena will have a hard time trying to get her to do the experiment. Sylvia never cared about school either. She always just barely passes her classes. Hilde sighed, she knew that this class will be really long for Relena. 

She looked at her lab partner, who was pretending to read the directions. Hilde was a little glad that she got Duo. Okay, she was ecstatic. She wanted to be partnered up with Relena, but Duo was the next best thing. She has had a crush on Duo ever since he moved to Autumn Hill, which was during the eight grade. However, it was one-sided. She was too scared to talk to him. He was immediately gobbled up by the popular crowd because of his humorous character and athletic ability. Duo dated pretty girls, girls that had the potential to be models, and Hilde believed that she wasn't Duo's type.

Hilde wasn't planning on making a move on him. She new better. She would just end up heart-broken by his rejection. She was ecstatic because Duo was always fun to be around with. He always found the humor in everything. He will certainly make chemistry for Hilde a lot more enjoyable. Duo was a nice person, he never went out of his way to put down anyone. As long as you were nice to him, he was nice to you back ­­– no matter where you were in the social hierarchy. However, just because you talk to Duo in class, doesn't mean you hang out with him after school. No he pretty much sticks to the in-crowd when it comes to his after school activities.

* * *

All of Relena's optimism dissipated shortly after she sat at the lab table next to Sylvia. Sylvia was the snobby little bitch that Hilde portrayed her to be – and so much more. Bitch seems more like a compliment. 

Relena walked sat next to her smiling, hoping that she wasn't that bad and they would have a pleasant partnership. Boy was she wrong!

"Hi, I'm Relena" she said holding her hand out for a handshake. Sylvia looked at her hand and sneered. Her gazed traveled up to Relena's face. She took in Relena's shocked countenance and gave her a menacing look. Then, she turned away and went back to reading the newest issue of Cosmopolitan.

Relena was furious by her snotty attitude. Sylvia remained her bitchy self throughout the class, choosing to ignore Relena and the experiment. She just concentrated on her magazine. Relena made the mistake of asking her for her assistance. She looked at Relena like she just sprouted another head, and then went back to her magazine.

Relena decided to forget about Sylvia after that and continued on with the experiment. She was working like crazy because the lab really required two people. She barely finished the lab, but she finished the last step as the bell rang. Sylvia just walked out, as if there wasn't a bunch of materials needed to be washed and put away. Relena just shook her head and started cleaning the mess. She would be late for her next class, which looked liked was bound to happen quite often this year.

"She's a bitch isn't she" Hilde said as she picked up a beaker to wash.

"You don't know the half of it" Relena retorted. "You don't have to help me. There's no point in both of us being late for the next class. I can take care of this."

"Don't worry about it" Hilde said. "I have study hall next period and the teacher doesn't care if we show up late or don't show up at all."

"I have a feeling that this is going to be a long year. I don't think I can stand Sylvia for a whole semester."

"Yeah, I feel ya. That's going to be torture. Hey, maybe Mr. Ferraro will let you switch partners. I mean you do have a legitimate excuse."

"I highly doubt that. He was pretty adamant about it with his whole speech thing at the beginning of class. I guess I just have to suck it up."

"I feel really bad for you, Rel. Since Ms. Cosmopolitan is not going to help you with the lab write-up, why don't you meet me after school, and you can work with me and Duo?"

"Are you sure?" Relena asked hesitantly; although, she was trying to suppress the happiness building up within her. Doing the lab write-up by herself would have taken her forever. Mr. Ferraro really knows how to give out work. "Duo won't mind?"

"I'm sure." Hilde reassured her. "Duo won't care. Plus, the more people the faster it will get done. I'm sure Duo will be ecstatic about that. I'll tell Duo and you meet me at the front after school. We'll decide where to go there."

"That sounds good." Relena agreed.

"Well I'm off." Hilde said as she put the last beaker in the cupboard. "I'll see you after school."

"Hilde" Relena called out as Hilde was about to exit the classroom. Hilde stopped at her tracks and turned around; she had an inquiring look in her face.

"Thanks!" Relena said sincerely.

* * *

Hilde was patiently waiting at the front door, when she saw Relena heading her way. She had told Duo about Relena. Duo completely understands and felt sympathy towards Relena for having Sylvia as her partner. However, there was a catch. It seemed that Heero had Dorothy for a partner and apparently Dorothy was as bad as Sylvia. Duo felt sorry for Heero and invited him to work with them in the write up. 

Hilde had no problem with it. Heero might not be the friendliest guy, but he was nice – in the quite type of way – and he was a good student. He always did his work and he would be helpful in the lab write-up.

"Hey, how's the rest of your day Rel?" Hilde inquired.

"It wasn't that bad" Relena answered truthfully. "No more classes with Sylvia." She did have classes with Heero. However, it's not like they talked to each other or anything like that. So it wasn't a problem. As long as he continued to ignore her and be unaware of her existence. Everything will be fine.

"There's been a change of plans." Hilde wanted to tell Relena about Heero, so she wouldn't look so shock or anything once he came.

"Duo said no." Relena said, her voice trying to sound nonchalant but a hint of disappointment fought its way through.

"Oh, no! It's nothing like that." Hilde reassured her. "It seems like Dorothy is as bad as Sylvia, so Heero will be working with us too."

"Oh" Relena way too cheerfully with a plastered smile on her face. 'So much for ignoring him. I can't get a break today.'

"Yo, ladies!" Duo yelled from across the parking lot, waving madly. Relena and Hilde walked over to Heero and Duo, who were both leaning back in a silver Mercedes. Duo met Hilde and Relena halfway and pushed himself between them, putting his arms around both their shoulders. "Hey, princess, the name is Duo Maxwell" he said while eying her. Relena smiled at his antics and decided to play along. He seemed harmless.

"Relena Dorlian, prince charming." Duo smiled at her and said, "I think we're going to get along just fine." He let go of their shoulders, took one of their hands and dragged them both to Heero. He pointed to Heero and said, "This here princess is Heero Yuy."

"Hi" Relena said meekly as she gave him a small smile. Heero gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

"Don't mind him, princess" Duo said, giving an excused for his friend's behavior. "He's not a big talker. Plus, he's a little bit pissed, since Sylvia and her posse was all waiting for their prey by his locker and pounced once he got there." Relena laughed at Duo's analogy.

"Did they bite?" she asked Heero, with her eyes teasing him and giving him a real smile, one that spread up to her eyes. Heero gave her a small smile and shook her head.

"You guys I hate to break up this teasing spar ­– you all have going on." Hilde started. "But I have to work in three hours, so we have to pick a place and get moving."

Duo was the first to speak up, "We can't go to my house sweetheart. My dad decided to repaint, something about an anniversary gift to my mom." He saw the looks that he was getting from the girls, therefore he added, "Yeah, my dad isn't the most romantic and creative guy in the world. Everything is about tools and construction." The girls nodded, knowing full well that some guys were just clueless and couldn't help it.

"Mine is out too," Hilde added. "My older sister is over and she has a three month old baby, a very loud three year old baby that doesn't do anything but cry."

"My dad is having a meeting in my house." Heero said. They all looked hopefully.

"My house is fine. As long as you guys don't complain about not having food. My refrigerator is empty."

* * *

Katherina Dorlian found four teenagers sprawled all over her living room hard at work. She leaned on the wall watching closely at her daughter interacting with her new friends. She was relieved that Relena was able to make friends so quickly. At first, she was afraid that Relena was going to close herself off from the rest of the world due to the incident. However, I guess she should give her daughter much credit. 

They were talking chemistry jargon. She was laughing inside at the utter confusion on the face of the boy with the braid. The other girl was trying to explain it to him, but it didn't seem to be working. Relena was looking at him sympathetically. That's my girl always worrying over other people. Whereas, the boy with the spiky friends was concentrating on his own work and not paying attention to the braided boy.

Katherina decided to let her presence known. "You know Pagan will kill me if he found out that you're here all alone with one other girl and two boys."

Relena smiled at her mom, glad that her mom was finally home. She wanted to vent about her interesting first day – from the male whore to the snotty bitch. "Then just be glad that he'll never know."

Katherina laughed at her daughter's answer. "Hi guys, I'm Relena's mother, Katherina Dorlian." They all said their greetings and introduced themselves.

"What did your friends say when they found out our fridge was empty?"

"I told them that I had a negligent mother who starves her only daughter."

"That about sums it up." The mood in the room shifted from quiet and hard at work to light and teasing. Katherina ended up ordering pizza and they all ate dinner at the kitchen table – talking and joking. They finished their lab shortly after dinner.

Katherina approved Relena's friends. Together, they were a nice bunch of kids – each had different personalities; however, their personalities blended well. After all the kids left, the mother and daughter settled by the fireplace talking about their first day. Their first day has finally come and gone. They'll just have to see what tomorrow will bring them.

* * *

**AN: **That's the end of Chapter 3. I felt like I ended it in a good note. There was no cliff hanger and there was some kind of closure. I'm sorry if there's so many things that happened in this chapter, I just wanted to finish her first day of school. Please review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. 

**CrimsonDragon010:** Thank you so much for your patience. Your review really encourage me to finish this chapter. You reminded me that people are still waiting and interested in my fic. I'm glad to hear that you like my writing style. My writing style in this fic has been really bugging me. I keep wanting to write in first person, but I thought that this fic really needed the other's characters perspective. Although, it will be mostly in Relena's POV.

**aphrael-chibi: **I agree with you, the rivalry always make things funnier. Plus, Relena has to have competition. It's much more interesting when there's tension and conflict.

**PureAngelEnchantress: **Hilde did talk about Duo - just for like a sentence though. As you see from this chapter Hilde has a crush on Duo. Her explanation on Duo was suppose to be brief because she didn't want Relena to think that she was interested in him - not yet atleast. I can see why you missed it though.

**Ally Lei:** Yeah Relena did make great friends right away. I wonder if I should have introduced them later on and let her hang out with some random people first. (Can't change that now.)

**Sesshomarusgirl123: **Nope, I'm not from Maryland. I have relatives there though, so I've been there a couple of times. There is a slight reason why I picked Maryland as the setting - you'll find out in later chapters when we Relena's history is revealed. It'll take a while though before I reveal Relena's history completely. I'll give flashbacks and clues though.

**advocatus, RelenaDorlinYuy1, Moonlight Twilight, Reignashii, BadScorpio:** I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and hopefully the next one won't take so long.


	4. Chapter 4: Who's the girl?

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

**AN: There are some lewd sexual remarks in this chapter and the characters have foul language. **Here is Chapter 4. This was a faster update. If you can believe it, it would have been earlier. However, my computer caught a virus and all my files were erased when they fixed it. Hopefully, the next update will be fast too.

Chapter Four: Who's the girl?

The foursome would meet up every Thursday after school at Relena's house. However, their write-ups were taking longer to finish since they had a hard time staying on track. Heero and Relena would use this time to let off the steam that had been building up. Sylvia's attitude did not change, she remained as bitchy and useless as every. Every week, she would have a new issue of Cosmopolitan with her. She didn't even bother to look like she was working. Basically, lab consisted of Relena working like crazy, while Sylvia read her magazine carefully.

It took Heero a while to open up. At first, he really didn't talk much. He just left all the conservations to the rest of them, while he worked on figuring out the next problem. Some of the questions were really difficult, but Heero was exceptionally intelligent. Therefore, the rest relied on Heero to figure out the impossible questions. However, after some time and a lot of goading, Heero started to talk and open up. The group couldn't take all the credit for Heero's sudden openness. It seemed like he was so annoyed by Dorothy, that one day he just exploded and started ranting about Dorothy.

Dorothy used the class-time to constantly flirt with Heero. She was constantly batting her eyes and subtly touching Heero here and there. One day, while Heero was pouring some chemicals into a flask, Dorothy decided to stroke his arm. This action took Heero by surprise, and he accidentally spilled all the chemicals into Dorothy's lap. Dorothy went into hysterics, screaming like a banshee and jumping up and down. Heero tried his best to calm her down by apologizing profusely and attempting to help clean her up, but Dorothy wouldn't subside. That was the last straw for Heero. Heero was trying to be patient with Dorothy, but he just couldn't handle it anymore.

After class, Heero stayed after to converse with Mr. Ferraro. He was going to try and convince Mr. Ferraro to allow him to switch partners. Heero wasn't the kind of guy to be picky. Usually, he would just go along with what the teachers wanted. The teachers were in charge, it was their class, their lesson. However, Dorothy took it to another level. Her constant flirting was getting in the way of the experiments. Plus, he just couldn't stand her. There was no way in hell that he was going to do another lab with Dorothy. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

"Mr. Ferraro," Heero said as he walked towards Mr. Ferraro's desk. "I would like to talk to you concerning my lab partner."

"I was wondering what was taking you so long" Mr. Ferraro said smiling. "I was beginning to think Ms. Dorlian was going to beat you to it."

"Excuse me?" Heero was baffled. He certainly did not expect this reaction. He was expecting this to be a hard sell, considering he was so adamant about picking the lab partners.

"I'm not blind Mr. Yuy." Mr. Ferraro continued. "I know what's going on in my class. I can see Ms. Dorothy flirting with you and how Ms. Sylvia is religiously reading her magazine during my class time. I was wondering how long you and Ms. Relena was going to allow this to go on. Plus, I check your write ups. Your write-ups are very similar to Relena, Hilde, and Duo."

"We are all working ..." Heero started. He wanted to make sure that Mr. Ferraro knew that they weren't cheating.

"I know Mr. Yuy. I can see that they help you clean up with your lab. You guys don't seem to be the kind of kids that cheat. All of you are doing decent on your quizzes, so it appears that you guys all know your materials. I don't have any qualms about students working together on write ups and homework. I would prefer that you would work with your lab partners, but I can see that certain circumstances would not permit you to do that."

"So does that mean that your going to allow me to change lab partners?" Heero asked hopefully.

"I'll talk to Ms. Dorlian tomorrow about having you two be lab partners. If she agrees, then I guess all is settled. Sylvia and Dorothy will be lab partners. Is that all Mr. Yuy or is there something else I can help you with?"

"No, that's it." Heero said gratefully. "Thank you, Mr. Ferraro. I don't know how much more I could've take!"

Mr. Ferraro chuckled at this comment. He could sympathize with Heero. He was getting annoyed just watching her flirt, he could only imagine what Heero must have felt.

* * *

"I think that I need a job" Relena said as she pop a pepperoni in her mouth. It was a Friday night and they were all (Quatre, Hilde, Catherine, and Sally) having dinner at Tony's Pizza. "We're going to be applying for college next year and they always look highly on work experience." 

"What are you looking for?" Sally inquired.

"I have no idea. I've never worked before."

"Really." Catherine was surprised at Relena's comment. "I thought that everyone worked at least for the summer or so. I mean we're teenagers, we are in constant need of cash."

"I guess I was always a bit spoiled." Relena said sadly. "But now, I don't think I want to be asking my mom for everything. I don't want her to work too hard. This must be really hard on her too, being the sole provider and all."

"What did happen with your dad?" Hilde asked. Hilde has noticed that Relena barely talked about her father and the divorce. They've known each other for a month now, but she knows nothing about Relena's dad or the divorce. She was curious, but she wasn't just going to randomly bring it up. However, this conversations appeared to be the perfect opportunity.

"It's a long story."

"Oh" Hilde said. She was disappointed that Relena hadn't really opened up concerning her past. It seemed like Relena was hiding a lot of things. She didn't want to push Relena, but she just wished that Relena would trust her. Out of everyone, Relena and her had become close. They had their chemistry group, they would hang out every Saturday at the mall or somewhere, and they would constantly talk to each other on the phone. Hilde would tell her all about her family and her problems, she even told Relena about her little crush on Duo. However, it seems like she was the only one opening up in their friendship. Sure it was great that Relena was a good listener but a friendship was a reciprocal relationship. Hilde was feeling neglected.

"I'm so sorry. I'm just not ready to talk about it yet . . . I guess I haven't dealt with it. I just need to figure things out before I can talk about it." Relena felt bad that she wasn't able to tell her friends about her father, her family, and the divorce. They were her friends but she was hiding a big part of her life from them. She noticed how they were always curious when something about her family or her past was brought up. However, she would immediately change the subject. She really wanted to tell them, but she couldn't. It wasn't because she didn't trust them, she did. However, talking about it would solidify the situation and she wasn't ready to accept it. "I am really sorry. I know that I've been hurting you guys - keeping all this information from you and all. Believe me, I want to tell you, but I'm just not ready. Please understand."

They all heard the sincerity in her voice and saw the tears forming in her eyes. This seemed to be a really difficult and delicate subject for Relena, still; therefore, they decided to drop it. They all silently agreed that they wouldn't bring it up anymore; they would wait for Relena to tell them in her own time.

"So I heard that Ms. Snobby and Bitchy got replaced with Mr. Hot and Mysterious." Quatre conveniently changed the subject when an air of silence surrounded the group after the topic of Relena's past.

"Oh yeah, did I not mention that?" Relena was thankful at the change of subject.

"No definitely not. I would remember if you told me that you would be working with Mr. Heero Yuy."

"Quatre, Hilde and I have been working with Heero and Duo with our write-ups for about a month now. I don't think it makes that much of a difference now that we're officially lab partners."

"Oh it definitely does, princess."

"Quatre, they're lab partners, not officially a couple." Hilde didn't understand what the big deal was either. Heero and Relena technically had been lab partners for a while. Now, they can just work together during class time.

"Have I been the only one noticing?" Quatre was completely surprised on how clueless these girls were. Sure, they didn't have a lot of boys or relationships under their belts, but surely no girls could be so clueless. All girls had some kind of woman intuition, didn't they?

"Notice what?" All the girls said in unison. They were all curious to know what Quatre could possibly be seeing.

"You guys are all clueless."

"So, are you going to enlighten us with your knowledge, oh wise one." Catherine said sarcastically.

Quatre pretended to think for a moment and finally said, "No, I think I'll let you guys figure this one out for yourself. Apparently, you guys need to practice on honing your woman's intuition. You guys need to figure this one out on your own."

All the customer could here groaning coming from four girls in the back booth of the restaurant.

* * *

On the near-by park, four guys were just finishing up some two-on-two basketball. It was five all, last shot. Heero had the ball, he dribbled pass Trowa, faked a pass to Duo, and drove to the basket. Game over. Heero nod to Duo and headed to the cooler for a bottled water. Trowa and Wufei followed Heero's lead, their postures were a little bit slump due to the disappointment of the lost. They left Duo all alone at center court doing his victory dance. 

"Whose the best! Whose the man! Who just creamed your asses!" Duo repeated those phrases as he tried his best to impersonate Michael Jackson.

"Maxwell, stop your pathetic dancing!" Wufei growled. "You give us, men, a bad name. Get your pathetic ass down here."

Duo stuck his tongue out and said, "Your just a sore looser Wu-man."

"I think you need a lesson on how to handle winning, Maxwell."

"Oh, come on Wu-man. It's not like it's a real-game. I promise I'll be on my best behavior once the season starts."

"You've never been before, so we don't really expect that now." Trowa interjected.

"Ha, ha, ha." Duo feigned a laugh, obviously un-amused by the comment. "I'm surprise you were able to fit us, your lowly friends, into your busy schedule. It's 7, don't you have a date to go to or something."

"Oh that's later tonight. I guess you wouldn't know much about the etiquette of dating nowadays. It's been awhile since you've been out."

"We're not all like you Tro, who finds it necessary to date every single girl with a face in our high school. Some of us actually wants something more than a pretty face. Plus, it hasn't been that long since I went out on a date. I dated Michelle over the summer. Not like these two guys over here - now they're the one's out of date."

"Don't bring us into this, Maxwell." Wufei growled. Duo was secretly amused that he was getting on Wufei's nerves today. He always found it fun to annoy Wufei, it was just so easy and you can always expect a reaction out of Wufei. Also, Trowa and Heero were always around to keep Wufei from beating him into a pulp. However, he had a feeling that one of these days, they are just going to let Wufei go and have his way with him. Oh, well. Until then, he's safe.

"Who's the girl this week?" Duo asked curiously. Duo figured that Wufei had enough of his annoyance for one day; therefore, he decided to change the subject. Trowa's girls were always fun to talk about. He always had some interesting reasons for going out with a girl.

"Tracy" Trowa answered nonchalantly. "I heard from Steven that she was an easy lay and I need one of those right now. That last girl, what's her name?"

"Jennifer," Heero answered.

"Thanks man. Well, Jennifer, she wouldn't go for any of that. She had no problem with making out here and there and the occasional oral sex; but she wouldn't go all the way. Apparently, she had morals. Bull shit, what a hypocrite. How can you blow me in the janitor's closet during lunch time, and come and tell me that you won't have sex with me. Give me a break."

"Oh my gosh, Trowa hadn't gotten laid in two weeks. I think he needs to see a doctor." Duo just didn't understand his friend some time. How can he just throw around these girls like that? And why do these girls keep vying for Trowa when they already know how he's going to treat them. Some things will just remain a mystery.

"Well I need an easy lay this week, 'cuz the next girl is going to be a challenge." Trowa's eyes were gleaming, he was bating them to ask him who the next girl was.

Duo did not like the look in his eyes. Trowa was planning something. However, he took the bait anyways and asked the unavoidable question: "Who's the girl?"

"Thank you for asking, Duo." Trowa said with his best game-show host voice. "I think you might now her actually. I've seen you talking to her during school. Actually, now that I think of it, I've seen Heero talk to her also."

Heero gave Trowa a hard look, he did not like where this conversation was heading. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Heero with his serious and somewhat-threatening Prussian blue eyes against Trowa's amused and menacing green eyes. Wufei and Duo just watched the staring game. Heero never cared for Trowa's debauchery. As far as Heero was concern, it didn't concern him. He just brushed it off and ignored him. This time, Heero knew that Trowa was up to something and he was picking this girl to deliberately get under his skin.

Duo was getting impatient with their staring game and could no longer stand the suspense. He had a bad feeling about this. Trowa was getting Heero involved for a reason. Duo wanted to know why. What was Trowa up to? There were only a handful of girls that

Trowa could use. Actually, there are less than a couple. To come to think of it, Duo could only think of two girls.

"Who the hell is she?" Duo yelled. His face was strained from the suspense and he was sweating from all the waiting.

This broke their staring game, and both blinked as they heard Duo's voice. However, their eyes remained lock. Trowa smirked at him, signaling that he was ready to give them, especially Heero, the answer.

**AN: **I really wasn't planning on ending it there. I was getting a little confuse on how I wanted the guys to respond to Trowa's future conquest. I wanted some extra time to think about it. Plus, I thought this was an adequate length for a chapter.

**PLEASE REVIEW!** I really do appreciate the reviews I recieve and I get all excited when I see them in my email box. It's nice to know that somewhere out there someone is reading my writing. I'm open to criticism and feedbacks. I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing.

**CrimsonDragon010: **Yeah it took me awhile to update last time. I had ideas, but I just wasn't in the mood to write. I have some ideas on how I'm going to establish Duo and Hilde's relationship, but nothing is set in stone. I really don't want to rush any of the characters' relationships because then it won't seem realistic.

**Reignashii: **I fixed the whole Sylvia situation. I wasn't going to let them suffer for long. Although, technically, it took them a month before Heero did something about it.

**PureAngelEnchantress: **I came up with the lab dilemma so they all have a reason to spend some time together. Yeah it was supposed to be three months. Sorry for the confusion. I really need to learn to edit my writing. Editing is the worse part of writing though (Atleast in my opinion.) I'll fix it sometime. Not tonight though, since it's 2:30 in the morning and I need to get some sleep. Thanks for letting me know! ()


	5. Chapter 5: Breakdown

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

**Author's Note:** Here's Chapter Five. I had a hard time writing the end of this Chapter, but I wanted to include everything in the outline. I'm not really happy with the end of the chapter, it seems choppy to me. Since this is my first fan fic, I'm looking at this as a learning experience. So bear with me and my choppy writing. Plus, I haven't found a beta-reader and I hate editing my own writing. I'm rambling, I'll be back at the end.

Chapter 5: Breakdown

Sometimes, people find themselves lost and confused. They don't know how to escape this stage in their life; therefore, they just sit there and wait. They wait for the future, for time to magically fix everything, for everything to come into place and make sense. As Relena sits on the moist grass of the city park looking at the man-made lake, she finds herself in this dilemma. Everything in her life seems to be jumbled up – a cross between her past and the future. She sits there, waiting, waiting for time to magically make all the pieces come together; so everything in the present will be alright. However, she was no longer a child, a little princess that believed her fairy godmother would come and fix everything with her magic wand. No, Relena Dorlian is all grown up. Her fairy godmother didn't come when she watched her parents fall apart. She didn't come when the divorce papers were signed. She didn't come when Relena packed up her things. And she didn't come as Relena and her mom opened the door to their new house. There was no fairy god mothers and Relena needed to accept that.

Relena sat there looking at the lake, as the night breeze played with her hair and the smell of dried leaves permeated the air. It was almost autumn. There were a few yellow leaves scattered on the ground. The lush greens of summer was turning over to the parched yellow leaves of autumn. Autumn always reminded Relena of her father. It was her father's favorite season and he would always take time to rake the leaves. Ever since Relena could remember, she would always rake the front yard, which was adorned a the big maple tree in the center, with her father. When she wasn't big enough to hold a rake, she would gather up all the leaves that she could with her hands and bring it to the pile.

_"You can carry more than that princess," Nicholas teased her daughter. A five year old Relena was bustling around the yard trying to gather up as much leaves as her little arms can carry. Her face was red from the excitement and activities added on with the cool breeze of autumn. Nicholas looked at his daughter with a serene smile on his face. She had grown so big. It seemed like yesterday he was holding a little bundle of joy. Now she was running around and giving him quite the exercise._

_"Look daddy" Relena exclaimed with her eyes wide open and a smile as big as Texas. She had came up with the clever idea of using her sweater as a bag-like contraption in order to hold more leaves. "Look at what I did. I can hold more leaves this way."_

_"Is that right, princess." Nicholas beamed at the cleverness of his daughter. He couldn't help but chuckle at the picture she made. He was going to get in so much trouble with Katherina for getting her sweater all dirty. However, he was willing to face the upcoming rebuke for that smile that adorned his daughter's face. "Well, why don't you go over there and dump all that leaves into our pile over there."_

_"Okay." Relena ran as fast as one could when holding a bagful of leaves in their sweater. Relena's mind was so focused on the pile ahead that she did not noticed the stick on her path. She tripped on that stick and all the leaves scatter on the ground. Relena looked at the ground with her mouth agape. Her eyes that were once gleaming with happiness was now gleaming with unshed tears. She had worked so hard to gather all those leaves and now they were all over the ground. She was trying so hard not to cry because she was a big girl now. The boy next door had told her that big girls don't cry. However, as she looked at the leaves on the ground, she couldn't help the tears that escaped her eye. _

_Nicholas looked at his daughter. The hurt in her eyes broke his heart. He had noticed that she was preventing herself from crying and that had made him so proud. His little princess was full of surprises. He walked over there and picked her up off the ground._

_"It's okay, princess," he cooed as he run his fingers through her hair. "We'll gather more leaves. I'll help you. Forget the rake. Today, we're only allowed to use our hands. Okay?"_

_Relena beamed at that idea and a smile once again adorned her face. Nicholas felt a surge of happiness when he saw the smile returned on his princess' face. He spun her around the air and dropped her carefully on the pile of leaves. Relena laughed at her father's tactics. _

_"You think that's funny, huh princess? I'll show you funny." Nicholas started to tickle Relena and the sound of Relena's laughter echoed throughout the neighborhood._

The memory of her father brought the tears that had been threatening to fall to finally stream down her face. It was all too much for her, the divorce, moving away, and starting over. It all happened too fast and she never really thought about what was happening. She just wanted to make sure that her mother was okay. She wanted to make sure that her mother could adapt to her new job, the new house, and the new lifestyle. Therefore, she just pushed back all her worries, her pain, and sorrow. Relena just wanted to make everything easier for her mother. After all, she was the one going through the divorce, loosing her husband. What Relena forgot was that she was loosing her father at the same time – loosing the only life she knew.

Relena knew that that the divorce was necessary. She knew for a long time that it would eventually end in a divorce. However, it still took her by surprise when it came. No one is ever prepared for anything because imagining or expecting something will never be the same as experiencing it. Her father was far from perfect; he was far from normal. There were times when he had hurt her mother and there was that one time when . . .

Whatever it was that her father had done, that still hadn't change the fact that he was her father. For every bad memory he had of him, there was a good memory. The whole thing with her father just confused Relena. There was a part of her that loathe her father. That part wanted to yell and scream at him for what he had done. That part wanted to hurt him as he had hurt her mother and her. That part of her refuse to forgive him, refuse to forget. However, there was still that part that loved him. That part remembered all the smiles, the kisses, and the laughter. That part remembered memories of raking on autumn mornings and opening presents on Christmas day. That was the part that wanted to forgive him, wanted to ask, 'why'. She wanted to figure out what could cause him to hurt her mother like that, to hurt her. She was her father and nothing he did could change that. And now, he was gone. She was without her father. She hugged her knees and continued looking at the lake, as the tears streamed down her face. The tears started to fall and they wouldn't stop.

* * *

Heero watched as Trowa drove off. The basketball court was empty now and it just added to the void within him. How did everything in his life become so complicated. When did it become so complicated. He didn't know what to feel about Trowa. Trowa had always been like this, going from one girl to the next. Why should it bother him now? It never bothered him before; he never cared before. Those girls willingly threw themselves at Trowa, so why should he care.

It was just Relena. She was a nice, sweet, and smart girl. It would be a miracle if she hadn't heard about Trowa now. The first thing she saw when she walked into this school was Trowa making out with some girl. Of course, she knew what Trowa was all about. If Trowa went after her, then it was her decision to make. Relena would be crazy to get involve with a guy like Trowa. She was too smart for that. She wouldn't' fall for his charm and good looks. Relena wasn't like the other girls. There was nothing to worry about.

All he knew was what he felt when Trowa finally confirmed his suspicions.

_"Rel . . ." Trowa did not have time to finally reveal the girl because to everyone's surprise, Duo had stood up._

_"Don't even think about it." Duo had a hard and concrete countenance. This was rare. Duo was innately goofy and jovial. Sure he would have his game-face on during games; but it was never like this. No matter how serious he was during games, there was still a glimpse of enjoyment in his eyes –_ _the joy of the game and competition. Duo was serious, and it was kind of scary. "Any girl but her Trowa. You can have any girl. Just leave Rel out of your little games."_

_"Why so overprotective, Duo?" Trowa was extremely surprised by Duo's reaction. He knew that they were friends, but he didn't think that they were this close –_ _close enough that Duo would look like he was going to jump Trowa any moment now. Trowa wasn't one to back down easily and Duo would not scare him off. He could handle Duo. "Is there some information that you would gladly enlighten us with?"_

_"Do you think I'm joking Barton?" Duo didn't like that smirk on Trowa's face. He had something plan and it involved Relena. Duo noticed the staring game between Heero and Trowa. Trowa wanted to aggravate Heero and he was going to use Relena to do it. Duo didn't care what was going on between Heero and Trowa. They always had a peculiar friendship. One day they would seem like they were as close as brothers and the next they would act like they were barely acquaintances. Whatever it was going on between them, they weren't going to bring Relena into their games. "Don't bring Relena into this?"_

_Duo walked straight towards Trowa and came face to face with him. "STAY . . . AWAY . . . FROM . . . RELENA." Duo's voice was fierce and steady, he reiterated every syllable._

_"Is that a threat Maxwell?" Trowa was not the kind of person to back down. At first, he was just goading Maxwell. However, now Maxwell seriously pissed him off. _

_"No, it's a warning." With that closing statement, Maxwell walked to his car and drove off._

_Wufei just shook his head with all this drama. He just happened to be friends with this people. Drama seemed to always follow him around. He stood up and followed Duo's lead._

_"Why her?" Heero asked quietly. He had remained quiet throughout the commotion. When he mentioned Relena's name, the first thing that popped into his head was too give Trowa a nice shiner in his left eye. However, something was stopping him. He couldn't get himself to move. He just sat there and let it all happen. Duo had stood up for her and basically threatened Trowa, but he didn't do anything . . . he couldn't._

_"I should be asking you that question." Trowa answered and walked towards his car._

When Trowa said her name, it was if a part of him disappeared. Now, there was a void within and he didn't know why it was there or how to get rid of it. He stood up from and just started walking. He needed to clear his head. It was all muddled from the prior situation.

Relena just showed up. She was just the new girl who would gawked at someone for making out in public. The girl who would complain about Sylvia, but would never do anything remotely rude to her. The girl who had the hardest time trying to figure out stoichiometry. When did she start to matter? She even mattered to Duo. Duo's overprotectiveness did not surprise Heero at all. Duo was very overprotective of his friends. Heero was one of the few people that had seen one of Duo's overprotective streak.

Heero was kidding himself. It didn't matter when, the only thing that mattered was that in the midst of it all - he started to care for her. It was those eyes. Behind the childish innocence was pain and fear. He could see it. Heero once saw her staring at the maple tree in the school courtyard during chemistry class. There was so much pain and sorrow in those eyes. He was knocked off from his reverie by the sound of sniffling. There sitting by the lake, was a blonde girl hugging herself crying.

he . He knew that body structure and that hair. It was Relena and she was crying. He stood there, a few feet away from Relena, and watched her cry. Something inside him shattered, seeing her like this broke his heart. She looked so sad and vulnerable. Heero did the only thing he could do, he went over there to her and held her. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, considering she didn't know he was there; but it felt right.

All his fears faded away when Relena hugged him back and cried. She cried on his shoulders.

* * *

Hilde was chomping away on Ben & Jerry's Half-Baked Ice Cream crying her eyes out once again due to _The Notebook_ while her three month old nephew slept soundly in the basinet next to her feet.

"He wrote to you, everyday for a year, damn it." Hilde wailed at the television screen quietly, so the baby wouldn't wake up. If you are watching a movie for the very first time, Hilde isn't the best person to watch it with. She tends to get really engrossed in the film and she has no problem voicing her opinion. If you watched a movie with Hilde, you'll probably end up missing half of what they said. She's great watching something the second time around, since she always provides extra entertainment with her outburst. Plus, she always find the most miniscule things about the characters and their actions. She gives you something to think about, to look at things at a whole new perspective.

Hilde had to shift her eyes away from the romantic epic on television due to the telephone ringing. She hurried to kitchen because she didn't want to wake up the baby.

"Hello." Hilde answered still sniffling from the movie and a little out of breathe from running. 'We really need to get a phone in the living room.'

"Hilde, are you okay?" Duo was alarmed by Hilde's voice. "Have you been crying?"

"Duo?" she questioned. Duo had never called her. She didn't even know that he had her number. As far as she can recall, she had never given him her number, even though they were working together.

"Yeah, it's me. Have you been crying?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh, not it's nothing. Just something sad on TV." Hilde said. 'Oh my gosh, Duo's calling me. And he was worried that I was crying. Awww.' Hilde was definitely excited about Duo's call. During their time together, her small crush on Duo had "somewhat" extended. Oh, who was she kidding? Duo was amazing. He always made her laugh. She can't imagine a dull moment with him.

"That's good to here." Duo said relieve. "I wanted to talk to you about Relena."

"Oh" Hilde said quietly with a tinge of disappointment in her voice. 'Relena. Of course, he called me to talk about Relena. What was I thinking?' With Hilde's ego definitely inflated and with her self esteem going down a notch she tried to cover up her disappointment with curiosity. "Oh, Relena. What about Relena?"

"Trowa wants her."

"WHAT!" Hilde bellowed into the phone. "What do you mean Trowa wants her." 'There is no way in hell, Trowa is going to lay one finger on her.'

"You know what that means."

"Why are you telling me this. Shouldn't you be telling Relena?"

"I tried calling her, she wasn't home."

"Duo, we have nothing to worry about. Come on, it's Relena. She's not going to fall for Trowa's tricks." Relena might not open up about her past, but Hilde still knew her and she wasn't the type of girl to fall for Trowa.

"I know, but I'm still worried. Trowa's never really been turn down before. How would he take it?"

"Your friends with Trowa. Sure he gets around, but he had never force himself upon anyone, right?"

"No, no, all those girls were willing candidates. Trowa wouldn't do that. He's not a bad guy." Duo really didn't know much about Trowa's past. He only met him in high school through basketball. Trowa had always been popular with the ladies, but he had always been a nice guy, a good friend. It was common knowledge amongst the basketball team that Trowa did not have the best family-life. However, Duo didn't really know the details of that situation. He's heard from one of the guys that besides Trowa, Heero was the only one in this that really knew about the details. After hearing that statement, Heero and Trowa's relationship had always been an enigma to Duo.

"Then we have nothing to worry about, right?"

"It's just . . ." Duo paused trying to put into words what he wanted to say. "There was something in his eyes, Hil. He's planning something." Duo didn't know how to explain the look that Trowa had when he was talking about the "girl".

"What do you mean?" Hilde was growing increasingly worried. She didn't know Trowa personally, but she knew that Trowa had never force anyone. However, Duo was really worried. He was starting to scare her.

"It's always been a game. All those girls, they were all games. But there was something different in his eyes."

"You don't think this is a game anymore?" Hilde asked as she twirled the telephone cord around her index finger.

"No, it's still a game. But it's different."

"Duo, I don't get what your saying."

"Neither do I." Duo was confused about this one himself. There was something there that he couldn't put his finger on. Trowa was planning something.

"What do we do?"

"I just wanted you to watch over her."

"You didn't have to ask me that. I would watch her nonetheless."

"I know. I guess I just wanted to talk to someone about it; maybe it would help clear things up."

"Well, I'm always here to listen."

"I know." There was a comfortable silence between them, but that wouldn't last. The baby in the next room started to cry.

"You hear that?" Hilde asked apologetically. "I have to go."

"Okay. Thank you for listening. I know I didn't make a lot of sense."

"Anytime."

* * *

Heero didn't know how long they sat there holding each other. However, he never let her go. He didn't want to let her go.

"Do you randomly hold crying girls in the park." Relena asked out of the blue, still sniffling from the waterworks.

"No, just pretty ones." Heero answered, smiling down on her.

"So you think I'm pretty?" she teased.

"Did I say pretty? I meant horrid looking ones." Relena rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, you think I'm pretty. You can't take it back."

"Hn." Heero didn't have anything to say to that.

"Okay. Take the easy way out."

"Are you okay?" Heero asked seriously.

"No" she confessed with a sigh.

"You want to talk about it." He started to soothe her by running his left hand up and down her back and running his fingers through her hair.

She took a deep breathe, turned her head, and looked up. She looked into Heero's eyes, filled with concern.

"I can't" she said as she closed her eyes. "Not now."

"It's okay. When you're ready."

* * *

"Thanks for giving me a ride home." Relena said. "It's almost pass my curfew. I can't believe I was out there for so long. How long was I crying?"

"I don't know. I lost track of time."

"Thank you for being my shoulder to cry on." Relena smiled at him and stepped out of his car.

"7:20" Heero yelled out after her. Relena gave him a confused look. "I'm taking you to school in the mornings. Be outside at 7:20."

Relena nodded and watched Heero drove off.

This was a crazy day, very emotional. Relena needed to lay down, no more thinking for the night. Too much thinking had lead her to her emotional break-down stage. 'Heero' Relena smiled at the thought of Heero. When he put his arms around her, she just knew it was him.

"11:58," her mom called out from the kitchen.

"What?" 'What was up with people and randomly calling out times today?'

"I thought this was going to be the day that you were going to break curfew. I am greatly disappointed. You couldn't wait 3 minutes outside just to make me happy."

"I'm sorry, mom. I'll think about you next time when I decide to come home on time."

"I heard a car pull up. None of you guys have a car." She was giving Relena one of her interrogating looks.

"Good night, mom." Relena smiled at her and ran upstairs.

"Hey, you can't withhold information from your mother. You already came home early, you should at least have the decency to tell me who brought you home on time." Katherina shook her head at her daughter's antics. She'll find out tomorrow.

"Does she really think she can keep things from me?" Katherina said to herself, smiling.

* * *

**AN:** It's me again. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Even though the last part is choppy, I really worked hard on this chapter. I was experiencing some writers block at the end. I was debating whether or not just to cut the chapter short. As you can see, I didn't do that. I decided to face the writer's block head on.

**PLEASE REVIEW!** It's easy and it makes me really happy (-)

**Thanks to all my reviewers from the last chapter:**

AngelOfGoodandDark: Thank you for all your phrases. I'm glad you think that I should continue to write. Writing and I have a love/hate relationship.

Remiera: I really didn't mean to leave the last chapter in a sort-of cliffy; therefore, the suspense-building wasn't great - it was pathetic. I don't think I'm capable of writing suspense anyways. Thanks for the review!

Reignashii: I haven't really thought about how Sylvia is going to react. I should get on that since that should be included. Thanks!

Mlle. Verity: Yeah, I've noticed the character development needs work. I actually research in ways I could improve my character development. I wrote up a history for the main characters and certain things that pertain to each characters. Hopefully, that will help. I guess I get so caught up in moving the plot that I forget about the characters. I just feel like it's taking too long to get to the plot. I guess I'm rushing both, the plot and character development, huh? Thanks for the suggestion.

PureAngelEnchantress: Yeah it gets deeper. I really wasn't planning this whole Trowa thing when I first thought up the story. I don't know where that idea came from. I guess we'll have to see where it goes. I hope I don't make things too complicated with all these ideas running in my head.

CrimsonDragon010: It's always so nice to hear from you. Your reviews are so filled with enthusiasm. I'm glad you like the writing style because I have my qualms about it. I feel like I keep shifting writing styles or wanting to shift. I don't know what I'm talking about. It's almost 11 and I think I've been writing since 5 or something. I'm trying to be good with updates since it's summer and all.

**Thanks again and Remember to Review! ()**


	6. Chapter 6: Blueberry Muffins

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

**AN: **I wanted to get this out on Wednesday, but I didn't finish all I wanted to get in this chapter. I had about 8 pages done on Wednesday and I thought maybe I should just end it there; but I decided against it. After Wednesday, I got extremely lazy on writing, but I forced myself to write the rest. I can be very determine when I want to be. I don't think anyone actually reads this, so I can just ramble on and on and no one would care. Well, hope you like this Chapter. It's my longest chapter - I'm quite amaze that I can write this much.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Blueberry Muffins**

The traces of sunlight from the clear morning sky was seeping through the pink lace curtains of Relena's window. It was a Saturday and Relena was compensating for the sleep deprivation that students have to endure in order to attain their much needed education. However, once she got a whiff of the fresh bake blueberry muffins; Relena knew that she might as well face the music. She buried her head deeper into her pillow and groaned.

Katherina Dorlian had been doing this to her daughter for as long as she can remember. It was a trick that her own mother had taught her. First, you entice your prey with a mouth-watering feast. Once they prey is within your territory, you threaten to remove the delectable meal if they don't cooperate. Of course, this plan actually only worked when the kids are young. Once they get older, children doesn't seem to regard fresh baked blueberry muffins in such high esteem. Therefore, you had to alter the plan a little bit. If the food didn't work then you resort to bribery, punishment, blackmailing, and even begging. Usually, punishment and blackmailing would do the trick.

When Relena was a kid, Katherina would use this plan in order to attain information about surprises, such as birthdays and anniversaries. Relena was a sucker for blueberry muffins. Once she saw the blueberry muffins on the table, she would immediately tell her mother everything as she stuffed her mouth with the fresh baked goods. However, that trick lost its magic when she turned ten and decided to learn how to bake. Relena no longer needed her mother for the muffins; so Katherina had to resort to other means in order to attain her much needed information.

Relena knew it was useless fighting with her mother. Her mother would eventually find out, so it wasn't worth it to be strong and stand your ground. If you hold out, then you there is the possibility of some sort of punishment or some kind of embarrassing pictures leaking out. It was a wiser idea, to just enjoy the muffins on the table and spill. So she trudged down the stairs wearing her pink pajama bottom and white tank top.

"What do you want to know now, mom?" Relena inquired as she grabbed a muffin and started to munch.

Katherina looked at her daughter and shook her head. _'That girl and her blueberry muffins.' _

"As I recall, yesterday afternoon I allowed my daughter to go out to dinner with three girls and one gay boy. From what I can remember, none of you guys had a car and you walked to the pizza place which is approximately two blocks away from this house. Are my recollections correct, so far?"

Relena nodded. She was only half paying attention to her mother. Currently, she was trying to savor the fresh-baked blueberry muffins on the table. She knew what her mother wanted; but her mother had a way of drawing things out. Relena was just relishing her treats as she waited for her mother to finish with her antics. _'I swear she should have been a lawyer instead of a nurse.'_

"However, when you came home last night two minutes before curfew, you came out of a silver Mercedes."

With that information, Relena dropped her second muffin, "You were spying on me."

"No, I wasn't spying on you. I was merely sitting by the window doing my bills at 11:58 at night."

Relena gave her mother a disgusted look, "Spying and lying to your daughter. That's a new habit for you, mom. Where is all this coming from?"

"Hey, remember who's interrogating who here!" Katherina glared at her daughter mockingly. Relena was a stickler for the rules. She always did the right thing, never wanting to hurt anyone. It could get on Katherina's nerve sometimes. She was a teenager. Did she not have a rebellious bone in her body? They would often get into pseudo arguments due to the Relena's "goody-too-shoe" attitude.

Katherina trusted her daughter. Relena hadn't done anything to loose that trust. Most of the time Relena surprised her with her maturity. She always seem to understand what's going on and is willing to adapt to the situations. Relena acted too much like an adult sometimes. Katherina wished that Relena would loosen up and act her age and yesterday was the closest thing she got to being acting like a teenager – coming home with a boy she did not leave the house with just barely making it on time for curfew. Katherina wasn't about to pass up badgering her daughter about this incident.

"Okay go on with the interrogating" Relena said as she continued with her muffin.

"Question number one" Katherina said inquisitively, "Who was driving the car?"

"Heero." Relena answered as she finished off chewing the piece of muffin inside her mouth.

Katherina gave her an inquiring look, "Heero, huh? He seems like a nice guy from the couple of times I've seen him."

"He is." Relena was not giving up superfluous information. She would make her mom sweat this out. The short answers would remain until her mother snapped. After all, she was spying on her last night. Relena was sure that her mother trusted her and the whole spying thing was probably due to curiosity, but she was still spying.

"Did he meet you guys up at the pizza place or something?"

"Nope."

"Was he invited by one of the other guys?"

"Nope."

"Did he give the others a ride home too?"

"Nope."

"How did the others get home?"

"Walked."

Katherina gave her daughter an irritated look. She was getting annoyed by her daughter's short answers. She was getting nothing out of her daughter. The picture Relena made, happily focused on eating her blueberry muffins, was getting on her nerves. Relena was goading her on purpose and it was working. Katherina was never a patient person and she could not take anymore of this game of Q&A.

"Okay," Katherina finally snapped. "I know that you left this house with four people, none of which were a straight man; but you came home with a straight man that was not invited to the outing that you set out on with your friends. I know what happened at the beginning and at the end. Can you fill me in on what happened in the middle?"

Relena laughed at the face that her mother made. Her mother really did have any patience. She cracked after like a minute of questioning.

"Can you please stop that laughing before I shove those muffins down your mouth?"

"Hey, leave my muffins out of this?" Relena said defensively as she pushed the basket of muffins further away from her mother.

Katherina gave her daughter an odd look '_She is way too overprotective over those muffins.'_

"Okay, okay," Relena conceded. "I'll fill in the gap for you, but no interrupting, okay?"

"I don't interrupt." Katherina answered her daughter innocently.

"Okay and I can't stand blueberry muffins."

"Okay, I won't interrupt. But remind me to keep you away from blueberry muffins. I don't think your affinity towards them are healthy."

Relena scowled at her mother but started her edited version of the story. She told him about how her friends' inquiry about her past made her think. Therefore, she went to the park to be alone and contemplate about everything. However, that wasn't a good idea since her thinking just lead to some sort of breakdown. Once the tears started to fall, they just wouldn't stop. She told her how Heero saw her crying and sat by her. Relena just decided to leave out the whole trying to comfort her by holding her and stroking her hair and back.

Relena was not one to leave her mother in the dark. However, her mother could be overbearing sometimes; especially about boys. She knew that if her mother found out about that, then she would push her to try and seduce him or something crazy like that. It was too early in the morning to hear some cheesy pick up line from her mother. Plus, she definitely did not want a lesson on flirting from her mother. Her mother did not have to know any of those things because it was nothing; and she would just make it into something. The emotional breakdown she had yesterday already took a lot out of her and she doesn't have the energy to deal with an exited mother planning her outfit on her "sure-to-be" date with Heero.

Katherina listened to her daughter's tale patiently. She tried really hard not to interrupt; she even resorted to the muffins. It was really getting hard for Katherina not to interrupt her daughter, especially when she talked about her friends inquiries. Therefore, she shove a muffin in her mouth, to keep her mouth from talking. She didn't realize that her daughter was having a hard time trying to deal with everything. At first, Katherina was worried that the divorce and moving had really take a lot out of Relena. However, Relena had seem to adjust to everything. She had made friends quickly and she didn't really complain about school – just the basic snobby girls, mean teachers, and creepy boys. That was nothing new.

Relena actually seemed happy considering the situation. Katherina didn't think that Relena was still having problems and this news of the breakdown was really a newsflash. She watched her daughter as she talked about the difficulties that she was going through and tried to explain the conflicting emotions that she was filling. She watch closely as various emotions flash through her daughter's eyes.

"I'm sorry, princess." Katherina said as she went over to her daughter to hug her. "I didn't know that you were feeling this way."

"Mom, it's not your fault." Relena explained. "You shouldn't be apologizing."

"I should have known, though. I just thought that you were okay. You seem fine. Everything in school was fine. You made friends and everything."

"I know and I just wanted everything to be okay."

"But it's not. Everything is moving so fast, isn't it, princess."

Relena laid her head on her mother's shoulders and took comfort the warm embrace of her mom, her best friend, her family.

"I was so blind not to see it. You act so mature for your age that I forget that you're still so young and if this is difficult for me, then this must be a hundred times worse for you. I guess I just wanted to believe that you were okay that I didn't look."

"I wanted to be strong for you." Relena sniffled as the tears found their way down her face again.

"Princess, you don't have to be strong for me." Katherina exclaimed. "I am the adult here, remember. I am the one that needs to be strong for you." She looked at her daughter in her arms and a wave of guilt took over. She caused this. Her daughter was crying in her arms on a Saturday morning.

"Princess, look at me" she said softly, but firm.

Relena hesitantly relieved her head from her mother's shoulders and loosened the arms around her mother so she can look at her. They were both crying now. Katherina lifted Relena's chin, "Princess, it's okay to be confuse and lost. It's only natural, but I don't want you to bottle all this up anymore. If you want to scream and cry, go ahead and scream and cry. I don't want you to hide your emotions because you're worried about me. Let me handle it."

Katherina pulled her daughter back into her embrace, "Your mom is not as weak as you think."

They held each other, a wave of understanding washed over the mother and daughter. Everything wasn't okay. It wouldn't be for a while, but they would get through it. It was only natural that everything was a little messed up. The only thing they can do is go on with their new life, and learn to adjust.

Katherina realized that she had to act more like a mother and watch her daughter closely. Her daughter wasn't as strong and put together as she appear, she was vulnerable. Katherina needed to remember that her daughter was very fragile. As a mother, it was her job to help her become strong.

Relena realized that she didn't have to be strong all the time. It was okay to let it all out and just cry. The world wasn't going to fall apart if she crawls up in her bed and cry. She didn't have to be all grown up, she was still young.

"Look at us, it's Saturday morning and we're bawling our eyes out." Katherina found the whole situation kind of funny. Their little emotional revelation was seemingly out of place. It was clear, sunny day outside. You can hear the neighborhood kids playing outside and people mowing their lawns. And here they were, crying in front of a basket of blueberry muffins. "We're pathetic."

Relena laughed at her mother's observations. "Well it seems like we've hit rock bottom and its only 10 A.M. It's still early and there's nowhere to go but up. We still have a lot of time to make up for our pathetic show over here."

"You want to go shopping. We deserve a couple of new stuff."

* * *

"Tell me again, what am I doing here with you?" Duo whined as he followed Hilde to a large two-story colonial home. Duo was rudely dragged from his nice, comfortable bed by a crazy chick named Hilde.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this Trowa/Relena thing," Hilde answered resolutely. "I was thinking last night and you're right this doesn't make sense. Trowa knows he has to work for Relena and he had never had to work for anyone in his own entire life. He always had an ample of girls to pick from. Why does he decide now that he wants a challenge?"

Duo groaned. He knew everything Hilde was saying was correct, but it's still Saturday and it's before noon. _'It should be illegal to wake up before noon during the weekends.'_

Hilde noticed Duo's attitude, "You were the one so worried last night. What's with the attitude today?"

"It's before noon," Duo exclaimed. "Couldn't this wait a couple of hours? I need my beauty sleep."

"There are some things that can't wait," Hilde bit out. Hilde was determined to find out what was going on. This whole situation kept her up all night and she wasn't going to wait any longer. She already waited till morning.

"Okay, okay, I'll cooperate and be good," Duo surrendered. He heard the determination and anger in Hilde's voice and he knew he wasn't going to win. He just had to take a nap later on today. There was no point on arguing with a girl on a mission, he learned that from the women in his family. Once a girl made up their made, there was no point stopping them. If you get in their way, you will just end up badly hurt. "What exactly is the plan?"

"We're going to talk to Trowa."

"Yeah, like that got me anywhere yesterday," Duo grumbled softly. However, not softly enough since Hilde heard and gave him a reprimanding look.

"Just knock on the door." Hilde commanded.

"Yes, sir!" as he gave her a mock salute.

* * *

Heero quietly entered his father's study. His father always spent Saturday mornings taking care of some business. It was the perfect time. Everyone in the house wanted to sleep in on Saturday mornings. This way, he would be done with everything before everyone wakes up and he could have the rest of the weekend to spend time with his family.

Patrick Yuy came from old money. His great grandfather immigrated to the United States from Japan. They experience a hard time at first – living in a whole new county, a completely different culture room those of that they were used to. However, those hard times would not last. His great grandfather was a very cunning and intelligent business man. By the end of his life, he found himself the owner of a very successful Sake company.

The business grew and remained successful throughout the years. It was passed down from one family to the next. However, Patrick Yuy was never interested in running the company. His father had understood his son and allowed him to explore his interest. The company was still owned by the Yuy family but it was now run by very well-educated entrepreneurs. Patrick would look into it every month or so. Most of his time was spent on his Software company. Patrick Yuy had found his calling in technology. With the help of his family's money, he was able to organize a company that would cater to the needs of automotive technology.

As much as he was dedicated to his job, he always made sure to have time for his family. When he saw Heero, his only child, enter his office; he immediately drop his pen and closed the file that he was looking over. Heero would never come to him on a Saturday morning unless he wanted to talk about something privately – meaning he didn't want his mother to know.

"What can I help you with, son" Patrick acknowledge his son as he motioned him to sit across his red-oak desk. Heero sat down, but he didn't say anything. He just sat there, looking at the family portrait behind his father's head. Heero was in deep thought. He didn't know why he came to see his father. He wanted to talk, but he didn't really know about what or how to go about it.

Patrick notice the perplexity on his son's countenance. His son was having a hard time with something. "Why don't you just tell me the first thing that's on your mind?"

Heero looked at his father in the eye, "Trowa."

"Trowa?" Patrick asked surprised. Trowa was like a second son to Patrick. He had even joined them on their little vacation to Japan during the summer. From a peripheral view, most people would think that Trowa and Heero were complete opposite. Trowa was innately a lady's man – good looks combined with his boyish charms. No girl can resist and Trowa definitely took advantage of that. In contrast, Heero was more concern about getting rid of the girls than attracting them. Even though they were opposites when dealing with the opposite sex, they think very much alike and have similar attitudes. You just had to know them closely to notice. There was always a strong bond between Heero and Trowa, an understanding. Patrick couldn't remember a time when they didn't get along. Those two weren't the type of people to dwell on trifle things.

"He's interested in this girl" Heero stated.

Patrick chuckled, "that's nothing new. When it comes to Trowa, there's always a girl."

Heero stood up and walked over to the window. He stared at the vines that adorned the fence, deep in thought. Patrick stared at Heero, a little bit confused. _'What could be the problem? Trowa liking a girl? Trowa likes a new girl every week. Heero had never cared before.'_ Then it finally dawned on Patrick, "you like this girl."

This was definitely shocking. Heero had never shown interest on a girl and he definitely had plenty to choose form. Once Heero entered Junior High, girls would constantly call or come over. They were all vying for Heero's attention. However, Heero would always pretend like he wasn't there or make up some lame excuse. At first Patrick thought that Heero was some kind of 'late-bloomer', and he just wanted interested in girls yet. Yet when high school came around, Heero's lack of interest in girls still did not change.

Patrick blamed it on his mother. When Heero was a child, Patrick had acquired is own mother to look after his young son. Heero developed a very close relationship with his grandmother. Aoki Yuy was a very traditional and idealistic woman. She filled his grandson's head with fairy tales and romantic ideals about princesses and their knight and shining armor. On her death bed, she had advised Heero to be patient and not be tempted by those 'evil witches'.

Apparently, Heero had taken his grandmother's words to heart. He definitely did not fall for those 'evil witches.' Patrick was worried that his mother had filled Heero's head with this ideal that no girl can ever live up to it. "Tell me about this girl." Patrick was keen to know who could possibly catch the interest of his son. _'What kind of girl does Heero like?'_

"I don't know how to describe her, exactly," Heero began. "She just seem . . . real, I guess. When she smiles at you, it's because she genuinely cares. When she laughs at Duo's antics, you can tell that she's really enjoying herself and she's happy. But behind those laughter and smiles, she's lost and confuse, vulnerable."

Patrick looked at his son, _'This isn't just a crush. He can really fall for this girl.'_

"I found her crying yesterday and I just had this overwhelming feeling to hold her and protect her. To make everything go away, just so she wouldn't cry anymore. I don't know how to describe it; I just didn't want to see her cry, to see her so sad."

"You care for her," Patrick stated.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I guess you can also say we're friends."

"And Trowa." Patrick was afraid of Heero's answer. Trowa and Heero had a strong friendship and he would never thought that a girl would be the one that comes between that.

"He wants her."

"And how do you feel about that."

"I don't want him to have her." Heero took his eyes away from the vines and looked at his father, pleading for some sort of advice, help – anything that would shed some light in this situation.

"The way I see it, it's not really your decision to make. It's hers." Patrick stood up and walked over to his son, "From the way you describe her, she doesn't seem like the type of girl to fall for Trowa's charm."

"I'm just afraid," Heero closed his eyes, "that she's here for Trowa. That she's the one that could turn Trowa around. I never stopped Trowa from doing what he was doing because it wasn't my job. No matter what I do or say, it wouldn't change him. I've always believed that a girl would come along for him. I'm afraid that she's the girl."

"It's up to her to decide that." Patrick answered with sympathy. He didn't know what to say to his son. He had also believed that a girl would come along to change Trowa and he didn't know what to say to Heero's little theory.

"Hn." Heero had decided that this conversation was over and headed towards the door.

"Heero," Patrick added before Heero left, "but that doesn't mean you can sway her decision."

* * *

"Oh you gotta be kidding me," Trowa exclaimed as he saw his two visitors that had woken him from his slumber. His hair was in disarray, only wearing a black boxer, and clearly not happy with his visitors. "What do you guys want?"

"You know what we want Barton," Hilde shouted as she pushed Trowa aside and let herself in.

Duo looked to Trowa apologetically, "Hey, I'm just following the little lady."

* * *

"Didn't I tell you to go change," Katherina said as she looked at her daughter's outfit with disdain. They were walking around the modest structure of the infamous Autumn Hill Mall. There were a moderate number of stores to pick from but it wasn't exactly the place to go for high end fashion.

Katherina always had an eye for fashion. As a teenager, she would always spend a great deal of her time looking through fashion magazines. She always knew what was "in" at the moment. Of course, coming from a middle-class background; her family didn't have money to throw around. Therefore, Katherina found a way to look fashionable at the right price. Half her teenage years were spent at the mall – looking for great deals. She often wonder how in the world did her daughter not get her affinity towards fashion.

"What I changed," Relena grumbled as she looked over her outfit. "There is nothing wrong with my outfit. Where just at the mall."

"Changing your pink pajama bottoms for gray sweats and white tank top for a blue one is not what I called changing" Katherina answered incredulously.

"Mom, it's just the mall."

"Fine, but if we see a cute guy out here from your school. Then it's your loss."

"Don't worry. I think I can handle the grief."

"Oh, I forgot we don't need to impress anyone else. Don't we already have, Mr. Heero Yuy" she teased.

"Mom" Relena whined. "I thought we were done with this."

"What gave you that idea. Our little crying fest was only intermission. I made you blueberry muffins in order to get answers about a boy, and I'm going to get my answers."

"Heero and I are just friends" Relena said frustrated.

"All I'm saying is he seem to care about you, comforting and giving you a ride and all."

"Mom, if you saw a friend of yours bawling her eyes out, wouldn't you go over there and comfort her. And would you let a friend of yours, walk herself home in the middle of the night. Especially, when you have a car parked a block away. What he did was only logical."

"Would it kill you to be optimistic for once. A nice guy takes a liking to you. Why can't you accept it, instead of trying to reason."

"Because there is nothing to accept." Relena exclaimed, she was getting tired of this conversation. _'I do not want a relationship right now and I don't want to be stressing about boys and my so-called love life.'_

"Princess, sooner or later you're going to have to take that risk. If it's not Heero, it's going to be another guy. I know my relationship with your father hasn't been the best illustration of love, but that doesn't mean you should give up on it."

"Mom, I'm not ready for love. I can't deal with it right now."

"I'm not asking you to fall in love with him, princess. I'm asking you to be a regular teenager. When you find a guy you like that likes you back, then give it a chance and go out with him. I'm not asking you to fall in love and get married, Relena."

"It's not that easy," Relena sighed defeated. She wanted to be a normal teenager and be able to just go out with cute boys and such. However, she had been living this life for so long that she didn't know how to be normal. She couldn't just do that; she didn't want to get hurt. It seemed like everything that had to do with boys always lead to pain in the end.

"Fine, we'll drop it for . . ." Katherina wasn't able to finish her sentence because she accidentally bumped into a well-built man with familiar green eyes. She stumbled backwards and landed on her butt.

"Miss, I'm so sorry."

"Oh, no it was my fault," Katherina explained as she brushed off the dust on her outfit. The man with spiky-brown hair and blonde highlights gave her a hand and helped her up. "Katherina?"

"David. I didn't recognize you." Katherina smiled at the nice man that she had met a week ago. He was a friend of her boss and he had visited the clinic with her boss's husband. "This is my daughter, Relena."

"Hi, I'm David Foster. I know your mom's boss." He reached out his hand for a hand shake.

"Oh, are you a doctor, too?" as she returned the gesture.

"Me a doctor. I don't think I can handle the all that blood. No I'm a mechanical engineer. I work for Elizabeth's husband, Patrick."

"Oh, I see." as she nodded her head.

"So you guys doing some shopping?"

"Yeah, just looking around, spending some time with my daughter."

"That's great." David said awkwardly. "I guess I'm going to leave you girls to do your mother and daughter thing."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Foster," Relena said smiling politely.

"It was my pleasure and Katherina . . . It's nice to see you again."

Relena gave her mother a skeptical look as they watched David's form disappear. "He's a nice guy."

"Yeah."

"A nice guy that seems to take a liking to you," Relena began as she made sure to keep eye contact with her mother.

"Oh no, you are not going to use my own words against me. It's a completely different situation."

"Hypocrite."

"What are you talking about? It's a different situation."

"No it's not. Stop being such a hypocrite. Mr. Foster is a nice guy who is interested in you. But not, you two are not going out because you don't want to take the risk. If it's not Mr. Foster, then it's going to be someone else, right?"

"Fine," as they stopped in front of mannequin wearing a black dress. Katherina's eyes gleamed. "I'll go out with David."

"You will!"

"If."

"I don't think I like the sound of this," Relena mumbled.

"You go to homecoming."

"I'll go to homecoming."

"You didn't let me finish. I'll go out with David, if you go to homecoming with a date. And it has to be a straight man, too. You can't ask Quatre to be your date because that doesn't count."

"Quatre counts."

"I said straight."

"Why do you have to be so specific?" Relena groaned.

* * *

**AN: **So what do you guys think? The plot is moving slowly, but I'm getting there. Be patient with me. I can not stress enough - **PLEASE REVIEW!** It's always nice to know when someone is reading my writing.

Thanks to my Reviewers from last chapter. Reading reviews always makes me all warm and fuzzy (maybe not warm and fuzzy, but I always enjoy to hear from the readers.)

**CrimsonDragon010:** Yeah, Relana's mom was lacking some "paper" time. At the beginning, I really wanted to show a close/fun relationship between the two; but I got side-tracked. There's just too many characters and some of them will be neglected at some point. NoHeero/Relenainteractions in this chapter, but I'm planning on some on the next one.

**Remiera:** I know what you mean, I get really engrossed in almost everything I read, except for non-fictions. I haven't really found a non-fiction that I got really into. That's why I stick with mostly fiction. (Especially after reading all those history books in my history class.)

**PureAngelEnchantress: **I'm so glad that you thought it was sad. I was trying to make it touching, but at times my ideas doesn't seem to be the same on paper.

**Attolia: **Yeah Heero is sweet in this story, which is way of character. But it's my story, right? There was no war, I can change there personalities up a little.

**Thanks you guys! Please Review!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Rose

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing

Chapter 7: The Rose

"Can you please tell me, why I had to bring a rose to school today?" asked Trowa as he headed towards Duo and Hilde who was awaiting him in front of Relena's locker.

"Have you ever worked for a girl, Barton" Hilde was dumbfounded. For a player didn't know anything about wooing a girl. "What better way to say you're interested than giving a girl a flower."

"Do I need to leave a card" This whole _How to Get a Girl 101 _was really confusing and hard work. After he enlighten them with his intentions, Hilde basically jumped him and started spouting out ideas. The girl wouldn't shut up about how great he was that he was doing this for his friend, after calling him every name on the book about playing with women's emotions about five minutes ago.

"No, you don't need a card" Duo added, interrupting what Hilde was about to say. "Relena doesn't need to know that you're actually interested. We're only trying to goad Heero, right? So, Heero will know who's it from. We just have to make sure that Heero knows Relena received a rose from a secret admirer." Trowa appeared reliable enough when he was talking about helping out Heero, but something still smelled fishy. Duo wasn't very knowledgeable about Heero and Trowa's friendship, but he was going to make sure that Trowa didn't get too close to Trowa. From what he had seen, Trowa knew nothing about girls and he wasn't going to risk Relena being hurt, even accidentally, because of Trowa's ignorance.

Hilde beamed at hearing this, "That's a great idea. I didn't even think of that."

"Whatever," Trowa said with a look of bored. "Let's just do what you have in mind. I have someone to meet before class starts."

"You gotta be kidding me?" Hilde looked unimpressed as she opened Relena's locker. "You're suppose to make it look like you're interested in Relena, you can't do that when you're making out with someone else behind her back."

"Don't worry about it, I'll keep it on the down low. She won't know about it. Besides, I'm not really into her."

"Hey, what's wrong with my friend?" Hilde asked defensively. She might not want Trowa dating her, but he didn't need to downplay Relena. Relena was a nice and smart girl, and a guy would be lucky to date her. Trowa should be showing her more respect and not act like it's such a difficult chore to act like he's interested in Relena.

"Hey, hey, that's not what I meat," Trowa blurted out as he noticed the angry looks Hilde was giving him. "It's just I already labeled her as Heero's girl from the start and I don't go after Heero's girl. I do have morals you know."

"Oh" Hilde was awed by Trowa's confession. It looked like that Trowa had some values after all and friendship was something that he relished. _'Maybe there's more to Trowa than I originally believed.'_

"Of course, I have no qualms about stealing anyone else's girl." Trowa added with a smirk on his face. "I just won't steal Heero's."

Hilde shook her head at that comment, _'I guess I was right all along.'_

"Fine, fine, do what you got to do, Tro" Duo interjected, "as long as you act like you're interested when Heero and Relena's around. And, try to not make it as obvious as before."

* * *

A silver Mercedes was rolling along the suburban street of Autumn Hills and inside there was a blonde girl wearing blue jeans and a white a white V-neck shirt laughing maniacally in the passenger seat.

"I am being serious here," a boy adorned in blue jeans and a blue long-sleeve shirt said annoyed at the laughter coming from the other person in his car. "I'm warning you about Trowa here and all you can do is laugh."

"I'm sorry" really said out of breath, as a couple of tears seeped from her eyes from the laughing attack she was experiencing. "I know you're being serious, but you don't think this is funny, even only a little bit."

"No, do you know what happens between Trowa and a girl?" Heero asked stiffly. He was slightly irritated that Relena wasn't taking him seriously and unconcerned about Trowa.

"Exactly!" Heero gave her a confused look. "Trowa looks for girls that are willing to give him something. He knows who those girls are because they blatantly offer it to him. Come on, look at me, Heero."

Heero gave her a quick glance, taking his eye off the road. "Trowa knows that I won't give him anything. So, Trowa can't possibly be interested at me, don't you see?"

"I was there when he said it, Relena. He said he wanted, you. It doesn't matter that you're not the type of girl that he's use to dating, he said what he said. I didn't understand it myself. I still don't understand it. Maybe he wants a challenge or maybe it's all a game. I don't know. All I know is that he's after you."

"So what?" Relena asked quietly as she was trying to swallow all the things Heero had just said.

"What do you mean so what?" Heero exclaimed looking at her like she had just grown a second head.

"Trowa likes me" Relena explained. "So what? I mean it's not like I'm interested. I don't even know him at all. Plus, I'm pretty sure he's a little bit too fast for me. It's not gonna go anywhere. He'll get bored of me within the week and be making out with some other blonde chick in an empty classroom."

"It's just . . ." Heero started to say something, but he didn't know what to say. He had no idea how to argue Relena's point. She was most likely right. However, he still did not feel right about all this. He was uncomfortable about Trowa liking Relena. Everything just felt wrong.

The ride to school remained quiet after that. Neither of them knew what to say anymore.

* * *

"Is that who I think it is?" Sylvia asked astonished as she pulled up in the parking lot. A couple of cars away was Relena coming out of Heero's car. She had to blink a couple of times to make sure what she was seeing was correct.

"Yeah, it's Relena" Dorothy droned out as she looked on at the new girl.

"What is she doing with him?" Sylvia asked furiously. "I didn't even know that they knew each other."

"Well, I guess they do."

* * *

"So this whole driving me to school thing was because of Trowa?" Relena asked while they walked to Relena's locker.

"Well, I guess part of it is." Heero confessed, giving her his 100-watt smile. From his mother, he knew that women get mad at the most trifle things and it seemed like this was something that a woman would get mad at.

Relena laughed at Heero's pathetic look and his unnecessary over-protectiveness.

"You've been doing a lot of that lately." Heero was getting extremely annoyed by all her laughing. He decided that it her laughter wasn't so amazing when she was laughing at him.

"I'm sorry what did you expect to happen. Trowa would pull up my driveway as I come out of my house. He'll say something charming and I'll jump into his car. Then, we'll drive off into the "sunrise" and live happily ever after."

"I don't like it when you're sarcastic." Relena just continued to laugh as she opened her locker.

"Oh my gosh," she beamed. In her locker was a single full-bloom red rose. "It's a rose."

"Trowa." Heero grumbled. He couldn't believe it. Trowa actually gave a girl something and a rose for that matter. _'What the hell is he trying to do.'_

"Trowa, what do you mean?" She looked over her locker, "there's no card. It could be from anyone."

"There's a rose garden in Trowa's yard. That definitely came from his backyard." He watched as Relena smelled the rose and the obvious happiness she felt at receiving the rose. He felt a twinge of sadness of the possibility that he may loose Relena to Trowa and Trowa might be able to charm his way into Relena's heart. However, the sadness was outweigh by the anger he felt at this moment for Trowa. "Yeah, and you aren't the type of girl to fall for his charm." His voice was a mixed of anger and annoyance. He was getting irritated at how happy she was with the rose, even though she knew it was from Trowa.

"I don't care who the rose is from," she blurted, glaring at Heero. "I'm just ecstatic about receiving a rose from someone. It might be from Trowa; but even if it was from the captain of the chess team, I would still be acting the same way. It doesn't even have to be a rose. I would've been ecstatic to find someone left me some dandelions."

Relena understood why Heero wouldn't want her to go out with Trowa. He was worried about her and his over-protectiveness was cute. At first, Relena was flattered. However, now he was beginning to be mean about it and taking it out on her. He almost sounded like he was insulting here. _'I'm entitled to be happy about this. What girl wouldn't gush over getting a rose and having some sort of secret admirer. I guess it's no longer a secret admirer.'_

Heero took the glare and the malice behind her voice into account. _'I took this too far.'_

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I guess I got a bit worried that you would soften up to Trowa. Especially now that he's given you a rose and all."

"Heero," Relena said softly as she looked straight into his eyes. "There is nothing Trowa could do or give me that could make fall for him."

* * *

"Oooh, a rose!" Catherine cooed as she approached Hilde and Relena. Everyday between second and third period, the three girls would meet up on the benches located behind the cafeteria. It was the perfect location since it was near-by their next class. They would spend their five-minute break to discuss the tedious school mornings. "Where did the rose come from?"

"Apparently, Trowa."

"Trowa?" Catherine blurted, she was beyond shock. She didn't think Trowa was capable of doing anything close to romantic. He was the do 'em and leave 'em kinda guy. She looked at the rose suspiciously and gave Relena and Hilde a confused look.

"I found it in my locker," explained Relena. "Heero told me it was from Trowa since Trowa has some sort of rose garden in his house. There was no card or anything, but Heero was very adamant about it."

"Oh, okay." Catherine was still very suspicious about it, but the explanation appeared decent enough. "So, Trowa, huh Relena."

"Are you encouraging this?" Hilde exclaimed, glaring daggers at Catherine. She didn't need someone encouraging Relena about Trowa; especially since Trowa was going to pretend to be interested for awhile.

"No." She looked at Hilde like she was crazy. "Why would I encourage Relena or anyone for that matter to get involve with Trowa Barton. I was just teasing. Calm down, Hil."

"I'm sorry," Hilde conceded, she did kind of overreact.

"We both know Rel. She would never be interested in a guy like Trowa. I was only teasing her."

"Okay, can we stop this now?" Relena whined. She was really getting annoyed by all this talk about Trowa. That's all she's been hearing all morning. "I'm sick and tired of this conversation. We're all in the consensus that I'm not going to fall for Trowa, even though he gave me a rose. So let's drop it."

"So, I'm guessing your sick of this subject." Catherine was laughing inside at the irritated expression that adorned Relena's face. _'She must really be sick of this subject.' _

"So, homecoming is right around the corner." Hilde changed the subject, hoping that she can get Relena to show some interest in going with Heero. Heero and Relena got along great. Trowa was correct when he said that Heero had never really paid any kind of attention to any girls before Relena. Heero would always acknowledge Relena in the hallway with a nod or something. Relena had no qualms about going up to Heero and striking up a conversation. What's even more amazing is that Heero didn't seem to be annoyed by it like he usually is when other girls would come up to him. There was something there between the two, but Relena had never made any indication that she wanted it to go further besides admitting that she thought he was cute before she had even talked to the guy. Hilde wanted Relena to make some sort of indication that she was interested in Heero. Trowa was convinced that Heero liked Relena. Hilde just didn't have the same convictions. Maybe she could get Relena to declare that she's interested in going to homecoming and hopefully she's interested in going with Heero.

"About that. I have a small predicament."

"What do you mean?" Catherine inquired.

"I need a date for homecoming."

"Okay, so do I." Catherine didn't know what the big deal was. Half the school needed a date for homecoming. Why did Relena seem troubled by it all?

"No, it's not like that." Relena clarified. "There's this guy that is interested in my mother, but she will only date him if I go to homecoming with a date."

"Then go with Quatre," Catherine said a matter-of-factly. Whoever didn't have a date between the girls would always bring Quatre. Quatre was their life saver. He was the perfect date – he dresses well, he can dance, he's a gentleman, and he'd never make a move on you.

"She specified straight guy," Relena sighed. Only her mother would specify a straight guy.

"Really." Catherine was surprised that the deal was the specific. "Ummm. Who else is out there?"

"I really want my mom to start dating again. I think it would really do her some good and help her get over the divorce."

"Oh, I got it." Catherine looked like a light bulb just went off in her head. "Why not take Duo. I mean I've seen you guys talk and he's a nice guy. I'm sure if you told him about it, he'd be happy to take you."

Hilde looked like she was about to kill someone. _'Out of all the guys in this school, she comes up with Duo!'_

However, Hilde did not have time to voice her opposition to Catherine's suggestion because the bell had rung and they had to go their separate ways. Hilde's opposition did not go unnoticed, though. Relena noticed Hilde's expression dropped when Catherine had made the suggestion.

It was actually a very logical suggestion. She and Duo were friends. Catherine had often seen Duo teasing Relena or talking to her in the hallways. However, Relena wasn't going there. Hilde was more interested in Duo than she admitted, and Relena wasn't going to get in between that.

* * *

Relena was glad it was finally lunchtime. She really needed a break from those monotone teachers who thought that passing out worksheets was teaching. Her hand hurt from doing all those pointless worksheets. Really what was the point of copying down answers from the book. It wasn't even a challenge looking for the answers, all you had to do was read the heading.

By the end of third period, her stomach was growling. She didn't have enough time to eat breakfast since she had woken up half-an-hour late. She just finish changing when Heero pulled up into her driveway. It was very difficult for Relena to wake up in the morning. Therefore, she had her alarm clock and used her cell phone. However, that still wasn't enough and her mother usually ended up yelling at her to wake up.

The first thing she did when she realized that she was going to be late was started ranting at her mom. How could her mother forget to wake her up? However, that wasn't the case. Apparently her mother was yelling at her to wake up like she usually did. She had assumed that Relena got up after five minutes of yelling. It seem like that Relena was in deep sleep this morning.

As she entered the room cluttered with students and noises, all she could think about was the roast beef sandwich that her name on it. However, when she spotted her usual table, her hunger moved to the sideline. _'What is going on here?'_

In her lunch table was the usual: Quatre, Hilde, Catherine, and Sally. However, they weren't alone. Trowa, Heero, Duo, and Wufei had decided to join their little table. _'What are they doing over there?'_

Relena walked up to her usual table with a confused face, "What are you guys doing here?" She didn't even try to hide her confusion. Everyone knew this was a strange occurrence and there was no point in trying to pretend it wasn't peculiar.

She looked to Heero and then Duo for some sort of answer. However, they weren't any help. Heero had on his passive face, while Duo was trying to put up some innocent face.

So, she turned to Wufei who had on his trademark scowl. _'Not getting any answer over there.'_

Trowa was the first one to speak up, "I just thought it was time for me to finally meet the new student. I just heard so many things about you and I wanted to finally get to know you for myself. So, I thought joining you for lunch was a nice idea."

"Okay," Relena said slowly. This was really strange. She took a seat next to Heero, which just happened to be the furthest seat from Trowa. Trowa was creeping her out. It wasn't just the gentleman-talk a minute ago, he was giving her weird looks. She wasn't scared or anything, it was just creepy.

Relena looked at her friends. Maybe they knew what is going on here. They just shrugged at her. So, she turned to her roast beef sandwich. However, she wasn't that hungry anymore and she ate her sandwich slowly. _'Thanks a lot Trowa. You just ruined a perfectly good sandwich and a hearty appetite.'_

Everyone in the table decided that it was a good idea to concentrate on their food, and there was definitely a lack in the whole conversation department. Quatre was getting irritated by the silence. There was four fine guys in their table and nothing was happening. This is a once in a lifetime chance and it should be taken advantage of.

"So, do you fine boys have dates for homecoming." Quatre decided to give his sole attention to Trowa. He started batting his eyes at him. Trowa looked like he was about to run.

"Oh," Catherine cried scaring half the table. "Duo, do you have a date for homecoming."

Duo was about to answer no, but Hilde beat him to it.

"Yes, he does," Hilde said firmly.

Duo was confused, "I do." Catherine didn't hear the confusion in his voice and took his answer as a confirmation.

"Oh, then we have to find someone else to help you out Rel." Relena just wanted to go back to her bed and bury her head under her pillow. She didn't want to bring up her little dilemma like this, especially in front of everyone.

"What little dilemma?" Sally asked.

"Oh, she has to go to homecoming with a date so her mother would start dating," Catherine answered for Relena.

"That's no problem princess," Quatre said. "I'll be your date."

"Her mothered specified straight," Catherine answered.

"Oh, that's cruel." Quatre returned to his salad, thinking about his friend's dilemma. He started flipping through all the possible dates for Relena in his mind.

Relena looked at Catherine incredulously, _'I can talk for myself.'_ However, Catherine wasn't paying attention.

"Duo was my number one choice," Catherine began, "since you guys are friends and all. I've always thought that you were a nice guy and if we told you what was going on, I was sure that you'd help out. Since you have a date and all, I guess we're back to square one."

"Yeah," Duo gulped. _'Who was his date?'_ He was going to correct Catherine's assumption, but he decided not to when he saw the looks Hilde was giving him. She was silently telling him to play along or I'll break your leg.

'_Wow, I couldn't ask for a better situation.' Trowa thought._

He made sure to catch Duo's attention before he spoke up, "Relena, If you . . ."

Trowa never finished since Heero decided to interrupt him, "Ill take you." He had caught Trowa's eye and he knew exactly what Trowa was going to do. If this was a normal situation, then Relena would have definitely refuse Trowa. However, she really needed a date to the dance and her friends were around. He was sure that Hilde would definitely against it, but Quatre and Catherine might convince her. The two of them were committed to getting her a date. Heero would not take the chance.

Everyone in the group was shock, except Relena. Relena just smiled at him and said, "Thank you."

* * *

**An:** So everyone this is Chapter 7. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it. And don't forget to review. I love all my reviewers.

**Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter: GottaLoveIt, Remiera, Captain Stu, RayxJade . . .**

**Reignashii**: I'm pretty sure this was only a typo (did I spell that right?), but I wanted to make sure anyways. You said you loved how kaoru and her mom interacted. I'm guessing you mean Relena?

**CrimsonDragon010**: Hope this one lifts up your mood. Yeah last chapter had a lot of personal feelings, I've been trying to build on the whole character development thing.

**PureAngelEnchantress**: Yup, Patrick and Elizabeth are Heero's parents. Relena's mom work for Heero's mom. I'm still trying to figure out how and when everyone figures this out.

**Friend1004**: Hopefully, this Chappy answered your question.

**Kingdom Dreams**: I'm glad that your group liked my story. I'm kinda curious about your group - what do you guys do and all? Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be more Duo/Hil and Heero/Rel moments in the future. There will be more Heero/Rel moments, though.

**FluffieGirlie**:Aww, this is your fave GW story. That's quite a compliment. I hope the stroy won't disappoint you when it finishes.

**Miranda**: Did you know that you're the first person to personally e-mail me a review. I just thought that you'd like to know that.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

AN: I know, I know. It has been a longer wait this time. What can I say? I experience some major writers block with this one. This one isn't really the best of chapters (and not the longest either), but it served it's purpose (more of a filler chapter.). **Important Author's Note at the end. Must Read.**

Chapter 8: At the Park

"How about this one?" Hilde asked her blonde friend who was hastily searching through the rack of homecoming dress.

Relena looked over at the peach halter dress that her friend was holding up and shook her head. "I can't do peach. I'm too pale."

Hilde looked her over and nodded. She put the dress back on the rack and continued looking for the perfect homecoming dress for her and her friend.

"I can't believe everything worked out," Relena commented.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. So how did your mom react?"

"She said I cheated."

"Cheated?"

"Yeah, she said I wasn't suppose to tell my friends that I had a deal going on with my mom. The point of the deal was that I was suppose to asked out a guy."

"I thought you just had to go to homecoming with a straight guy as a date."

"That's what I said. I told her that all she specified was the straight business."

"Is she backing out of the deal then?"

"Nope, she's going on the date the same night I'm going to homecoming."

"So mother and daughter going on a date the same night. How cute!"

"Shut up! I'm not the one going on to homecoming with my long time crush."

"He's not my long time crush," Hilde defended.

"Oh, okay," Relena said sarcastically. "I mean the guy you've been crushing on for about two years."

"Ha, ha. You're so funny."

"How did that happen anyway?" Relena asked curiously. Hilde hadn't mentioned how Duo asked her to go to homecoming. She had just told her and Catherine that she was going to homecoming with Duo during one of their hallway rendezvous.

"Oh, it was nothing special. He just asked me." Hilde hoped that Relena would be satisfied with that answer. She couldn't exactly tell Relena how Duo and her had end up becoming dates for homecoming.

_Flashback_

"_So , I heard this rumor during lunch today," Duo teased. He wasn't about to let her get out of this one._

"_Shut up, Duo!" Hilde said sternly as she twirled the phone cord with her index finger. "It just came out, Okay."_

"_I'm not exactly getting this whole thing." Duo was going to be difficult. She had said that he had a date for homecoming and he was going to come out of this phone call with a real date. However, he wasn't going to do any asking. She had brought this upon herself. "How does 'Duo already has a date' come out of someone's mouth."_

"_Duo," she whined. She really didn't want to get into this. She didn't exactly know why she had blurted that out. Duo going with Relena was actually a logical solution to her problem. All of what Catherine suggested was correct. However, she didn't want to see Duo go to homecoming with Relena . . . Or anyone else for that matter. _

"_No, why does every girl think that they can get out of everything with whining. I called you for an explanation and I'm not going to leave you alone 'till I get one. Don't even think about hanging up; unless your parents won't mind a late-night visitor."_

"_Fine, fine," Hilde conceded. Hilde was in a bind. She didn't have a clear explanation on her outburst. The only reason she could think of her outburst right now was her little crush on Duo, but she didn't want to admit that to him. _

"_Hello, hello," Duo shouted at the phone. Hilde had been quiet for sometime now. _

"_I'm here, I'm here." Her mind was working overtime trying to make up some believable explanation for her outburst. Lying was never one of her strong points._

"_You still haven't answered my question," Duo reminded. He was very interested in the reasons behind her outburst._

"_Well isn't it obvious," Hilde exclaimed. A wide grin adorned her face since she had just figured out a plausible answer for her outburst. "I was trying to help out Relena."_

"_What?" Duo blurted out. He did not expect to hear that answer. He was expecting some sort of confession on how Hilde had some kind of feelings for him, but not Relena. Due to all the time that they had been spending together, Duo had developed an affinity towards Hilde. He didn't know when it started, but when he saw how concerned she was over the whole Trowa/Relena thing; he knew that he could have something with this girl._

_From her outburst at lunch, he had thought that Hilde had similar feelings for him and the whole reason behind the outburst was slight jealousy. _

"_Yeah, I mean if I hadn't said anything then Relena would be going with you to homecoming instead of Heero." Hilde was still grinning from her excuse. She should get a pat on the back for this lie. _

"_Yeah," Duo agreed, although he was still slightly disappointed from her explanation. _

"_So everything turned out okay, right. I mean Relena and Heero are going to homecoming together. Wasn't that the mission all along."_

"_Yeah, but you're forgetting one problem."_

"_What?"_

"_My date."_

"_Oh." Hilde didn't know what to do on that one. She didn't want him to go with anyone else. However, she couldn't very well and ask him. Beside he'd most likely say no. So she gulped and said, "Come on there's like more than a dozen girls that would gladly go to homecoming with you. Why don't you go get one of them."_

"_No."_

"_What do you mean no."_

"_See, as far as I recall. I wasn't the one that said I had a date. That was all you. So I decided that it's up to you to get me a date."_

"_What!" It was now Hilde's turn to be surprise. _

"_Yeah, don't you think it's befitting."_

"_Why would you want me to get you a date. You have no problem doing that on your own."_

" '_cuz."_

"_That's not a real answer," Hilde said exasperated. _

" _That doesn't matter. You have to get me a date, or you have to explain to your friends why you lied to them about my date."_

"_You're being cruel."_

"_No, I'm being logical."_

"_I thought you wanted to help Heero and Relena out."_

"_I know and we did help them out. Now you have to find me a date. That has nothing to do with Heero and Relena."_

"_Yes it does."_

"_No it doesn't."_

"_The only reason I blurted that was to get Heero and Relena together."_

"_Well, you should have thought of the consequences."  
_

"_I didn't think that you would be cruel about it."_

"_I'm not being cruel."_

"_Yes, you are."_

"_No am not."_

_Hilde was getting really frustrated and angered by this argument. It was going nowhere and it didn't look like the end was coming soon._

"_Fine, I'll be your date," Hilde yelled at the phone._

_Duo smiled at her outburst. It was just what he wanted to hear. _

_Flashback ends_

"Oh, come on," Relena pressed. "There's got to be more to it than that."

"No it wasn't really anything especial. He just called and asked me." _'At least, the phone call thing wasn't a lie.'_

"Well, at least he asked you," Relena said with a hint of bitterness in her voice. A part of her had wish that her whole predicament wasn't brought up during lunch, especially not in front of Heero.

"What are you talking about, Rel." Hilde eyed her friend closely. Relena hadn't showed any sign of bitterness before. She was always upbeat when it concerned homecoming.

"I don't know what I'm talking about," Relena said defeated. "Never mind."

"Oh, come on, Rel. You can't keep me hanging like that."

Relena stared at the embroidery from one of the dresses hanging from the rack. "It's just," she started, "he had to ask me."

"What are you talking about. He didn't need to ask you."

"Well okay, maybe he hadn't necessarily needed to ask me. But don't you see how this is a whole big favor."

Hilde didn't know what Relena was talking about. She had been the one openly talking about her predicament and Heero had given her a solution. He was doing her a favor, but that's what she wanted, wasn't it.

Then it hit her, "You wanted him to ask you."

Relena didn't answer, she just kept on looking at one of the dresses. Hilde took her silence as confirmation and continued with her newfound revelation. "You like Heero."

Hilde looked at her friend closely, but Relena still remained quiet and disregarding Hilde. "When?"

Relena looked up and was met with her friends curious eyes, she whispered, "At the park".

* * *

**Authors Note**

**I will be going on Vacation to the Philippines on July and I won't be back till August. Therefore, there will be no updates until the end of August or the beginning of September. I am so sorry, but I am very excited to be going. I hope that you guys all review cuz' I'll be needing your encouragement when I come back to start writing again. **

* * *

Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter. I'm sorry I took long to update. Thanks for your patients.

RayxJade: Trowa and Catherine aren't related. I don't know if I'm going to hook Trowa up with anyone because then I would have to go in-depth with his character and this story looks like it's going to be longer than I originally planned already. However, who know's I might change my mind.

CrimsonDragon010: I'm planning for the next chapter to be the actual dance, but that can change. Thanks for your loyal support, I really appreciate it.

Kai's the Best: I seem to be getting a lot of support for a Trowa/Quatre hook-up, but I don't know if that's going to happen. That would be a complete 180 for Trowa. I mean he's a playboy one day and gay the next. Plus, I wouldn't know how to go about writing it.

silvertwighlight: I'm sorry you don't like the way that I portrayed Trowa. But it was either him or Wufei and Trowa seems more fitting. Although, Duo does seem to be a more outgoing character, I always pictured him with Hilde. Therefore, I didn't want him to be the playboy character. I do agree that Trowa is a bit out of character.

Remiera: Thanks for reading!

Kingdom Dreams: It sounds like you guys have a blast together (). There aren't any Heero/Rel moments in this Chapter, but there are some Duo/Hil moments. I know one of you guys were asking for some.

FluffieGirlie: Sorry it took so long to update. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

animelo: Yeah, Heero jealous is always fun.

PureAngelEnchantress: Everything should turn out okay in the end. I mean their guys. Guys don't tend to hold grudges and they tend to just brush things off after some time.

Captain Stu: I'm sorry I made you wait so long. Don't worry, I won't let it die.

meyojojo: Wow the first gundam fic you've ever read. I feel so honored.

**Thank's y'all for all your support and for reading my story. Please review.**


	9. Chapter 9: Homecoming Jitters

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter 9: Homecoming Jitters

"And you're done!" as Katherina curled the last strand of blonde hair on her daughter's head. She circled her daughter, examining her closely. "I did a magnificent job, don't you think?"

Relena rolled her eyes, "Mom, you can be so full of yourself."

"What?" she asked, with her eyes gleaming with laughter. "You don't agree with my work."

She had to give her mom credit. Her mom knew how to style hair, a talent that Relena did not inherit. The only thing that Relena could do to her hair was put it up in pony tail, a practice that she has perfected.

"Mom, you know your work is gorgeous. Stop looking for acclamations." Relena's hair was up in a French twist with two curled strands framing her face. Katherina had picked up some blue-bells from the florist and weave a couple of them in her daughters hair. The blue-bells were a great match with the midnight-blue off the shoulder dress that adorned her daughter's figure. The dress went down to just below her knees, and had a slit on the right side. "You have talent with hair. We all know it."

"Nah, I don't think it has much to do with my talent," she squeezed her daughter's shoulder lightly, "I think it has more to do with my subject."

Relena blushed, "Awww, mom." She was never good with compliments.

"Princess, you look beautiful." She stared at her daughter sitting in front of the mirror all dressed-up and going to the homecoming dance. Her daughter was really beautiful and for the first time she realized how grown up her daughter was. Katherina always commented on how grown up Relena had always acted, but tonight she looked grown up.

A lone tear strayed down her face. She was the one pushing Relena to act her age and go out with boys. However, now, she didn't know if she wanted that. She didn't want to let go of the little she would spend hours playing house with.

"Mom, don't go sentimental on me," she whined as she noticed the tear fall from her mother's eye. "You have a date tonight, you can't have fluffy and red eyes.. That just isn't attractive."

Katherina chuckled at her daughter's comments. She did have a date tonight. "Yeah, about that. You cheated."

"What do you mean I cheated?" Relena looked at her accusingly. "The deal was you go out with David, if I go to homecoming with a straight guy. And Heero is straight. Well, I think he is. I haven't really asked.; I know some people are really good at hiding these things. Do you think Heero is gay? Is that what this is?"

"No" Katherina exclaimed as she shook her head, "Don't worry Heero is straight. On a side note though, don't you even think about asking him if he's gay or not."

"Don't worry about that," Relena assured her mom. "I'm not that clueless., that would be a big blow to his ego.. If it's not that, then what is this cheating business about. I followed all the rules you stated."

"Yeah you did, but you didn't follow the given rule that didn't need to be stated."

"What are you talking about," Relena was completely confuse. Where was her mother getting this crap?

"You told your friends all about our deal. Then Heero had to go 'Oh, I'll help a friend out and volunteered to take you.' "

"Yeah, so. You didn't say that I had to keep quiet about our little deal." Relena knew she didn't cheat. Just because she got her date the unconventional way does not mean she cheated. Her mother did not specify anything about how she had to get her date. Although she knew the reasons behind her mother's fussing.

"I thought it was given. Our little deal was made because I wanted you to do the whole teenage thing. A big part of that was getting all nervous and jittery because you have to ask a guy out to the dance. However, no, you totally skipped that part and got your friend to volunteer to take you."

Relena smiled at her mother's annoyance, "Sorry, but no rules are given. All rules that are not stated or written does not count."

"Whatever." Katherina turned her back on her daughter and crossed her arm. Relena snorted at her mother's childish behavior. She rolled her eyes and stood up to hug her mother from behind.

"Don't worry, mom. I'm sure there'll be plenty of chances for me to get all jittery and nervous about asking a guy out. Plus, I'll make sure you're the first one to know about it. Who knows I might even ask a guy out in front of you just to make up for my so-called cheating episode."

"You better. Now enough about that. We have some rules to go over before I hand you over to that handsome boy of yours."

"I know I know, we had this talk already. Curfew is at one. No drinking, drugs, etc." Relena returned to her seat in front of the vanity, since it looked like her mother was going to go into maternal mode and start naming out rules. Even though, it was very unnecessary.

"Not those rules, princess. I know you, you won't break those rules. Even though sometimes I wish you would, just to prove to me that you're a teenager and there is a rebellious bone in your body. Even just a tiny little one."

"Okay, just to make you happy maybe I'll get Heero to take me home five minutes after curfew." She rolled her eyes.

"Speaking of Heero, what I'm talking about concerns him."

"What?" she eyed her mom suspiciously.

"Well technically this is a date right."

"I guess, but not really. It's just a dance." Relena picked up her perfumed and sprayed some on her neck and dabbed some on her underside of her wrist.

"Whatever, dance or what not. We're counting is as some sort of date."

Relena nodded acknowledging her mother's words. There was no point in arguing. Although, she really did not think of this as a date. For it to be considered a date, one person has to ask the other person out and that really did not happen.

"Well, since it is a date. There are some things I need to lay out." There was a twinkle in Katherina's eyes, and it was making Relena squirm. "Now princess, we don't want anyone to think that you're easy right."

"What!" Relena exclaimed standing up.

"Now, now" her mother said unaffected by her daughter's outburst. "Sit back down, and listen." She pushed her irritated daughter back down into her chair.

Relena's face was scrunched up due to the glare that she was giving her so called "mother". Her mother was having way too much fun with this.

"I guess, I'll use the baseball euphemism. Let's see." Her mother stared at the ceiling, deep in thought; while, Relena continued glaring. "Now first and second base are definitely acceptable on a first date. I'll be extremely disappointed if you don't get to first. Come on, princess. Heero is hot." Katherina looked at her daughter. Relena was fuming and embarrassed, her face was red and both of her hands were folded into a fist. Katherina was laughing silently in her mind. "Third base. I would be extremely surprised if you get that far because, come on now, we're talking about you here. However, I will be mad and disappointed. I thought you better than that, however, I do now that teenagers nowadays . . .Now home run is a no-no. You got that princess. I mean what would Heero think of you. I'm sure . . ."

Relena did not allow her mother to finish her little speech. "Mom," she whined and ran out of her room and headed to the bathroom. She knew her mother was only teasing her, but she was already nervous about this date. Now her mother was talking about all the intimate stuff that goes along dates. Although, it was very unlikely that anything will happen between her and Heero.

She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and took a deep breathe. She had the urge to wash her face and cool off, but that would ruin her make-up; so breathing had to do.

"Princess, are you okay?" Katherina asked as she knocked on the bathroom. She thought it would be funny, since Relena had always felt uncomfortable when it came to any kind of intimacy with the opposite sex. Now she was going to a dance and as a mother, she couldn't have let this opportunity passed. It was only suiting that she would tease her daughter about this.

"Yeah, I'm fine mom," Relena answered after exhaling for about the tenth time. "I guess I was just a bit nervous. Just give me a minute, okay."

"Princess, you have nothing to worry about. You'll be fine. You look so beautiful that Heero will be stuttering the whole night." Katherina smiled as she recalled he image that her daughter presented. "I'll wait for you downstairs."

**o o o o **

Heero stepped out of his car and took a deep breath. His nerves just would not calm. His left hand, the one that was carrying the corsage that consisted of white roses, blue-bells, and babies breathe, was shaking.

He had been like this for at least half an hour, a nervous wreck. All day all he could think about was the dance. Of course he played it cool on the outside, and pretended not to realize that today was the dance when people came and asked him about it.

"Here goes nothing," he said as he rang the doorbell to her house.

**o o o o **

"Mom, he's here" Relena said as she headed towards the door. However, she would never make it there, since her mother grabbed her wrist effectively halting her actions.

Katherina shook her head at her daughter. "Haven't I thought you anything."

Relena choose to ignore her mother's comments and was busy trying to remove the offending hand on her wrist.

Katherina rolled her eyes at her daughter's feeble attempt and dragged her off to the kitchen. "Apparently there's another set of rules you don't know about."

"What is up with you an all these rules?" Relena asked exasperatedly. "Is there a book out there or something that I should have read beforehand. Tell me, so I can find it and burn it after I shred it to pieces." She was really getting annoyed by all these so-called rules. Relena was a very prompt person and she did not like to keep people waiting. She was always on time and her mother was keeping her away from her "appointment".

Katherina could not believe how clueless her daughter was on dating etiquette. "First of all, you never answer the door if there is someone else in the house to do it for you. And if there isn't, you most definitely not answer after the first ring. You make the door weight for at least a couple of minutes."

"What's the point in that?" Relena didn't understand the logic in keeping the boy waiting. "That's completely illogical."

"Logic is not the point here princess. This is not science, it's dating. There's no room for logic in dating."

Relena was baffled, her mother was not making any sense.

Katherina took in her daughter's puzzled face and sighed. _'She's completely hopeless.'_ "Just remember to keep the boy waiting for a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes won't kill you. Just make some last minute adjustments to your look or something."

Relena gave in and sat herself down gently on the sofa, weary of her dress. She closed her eyes and started counting sheep.

**o o o o**

After about 150 sheep, Relena heard her mother open the door and make small talk with Heero. _'This is it. Time to face the music.'_

She took one last deep breath and quietly stood up from the sofa. As she turned, her eyes locked with Heero and for a second she felt like she forgot how to breathe.

**o o o o **

"Wow!" Hilde exclaimed as she sized up the gymnasium. The once banal gym that smelled of sweat and rubber was transformed into an elegant ballroom adorned by blue and white decorations, glowing due to the white Christmas lights along the periphery.

"They really got it together for the dance."

"Yeah, got to agree with you there." Duo was looking devilishly handsome in the traditional tuxedo and his hair was in its customary braid. "The gym doesn't look half bad."

"Let's go find a table. We have to save a seat for Heero and Rel, plus Quatre and them guys." Hilde hurriedly dragged Duo along.

Duo just shrugged at the girl's antics. He wasn't going to argue with the goddess in front of him. She was a sight to behold, wearing a black spaghetti trap dress that clung to her body at all the right places. Duo had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to say no to her tonight.

"How about this one." Hilde stopped by a round table for eight, "it's not to far from the snacks and the dance floor that we'd have to walk far. Plus, it's not to near that there would be a lot of people gathering. It's the perfect location." Hilde smiled at her choice.

Normally, Duo would have a smart remark about that comment. Come on, perfect location for a table. However, after seeing the smile on her face, whatever remark that was in his mind vanished. She was right, this was the perfect location.

**o o o o **

"I'm sorry about that" Relena apologized to Heero as he got comfortable on the driver's seat.

"It's okay. I mean everyone's parents take pictures." Heero tried to appease Relena's worries as he fastened his seatbelt.

"Two rolls, Heero," she cried out. Apparently, it didn't work.

"I guess she was excited or she seems like the sentimental type.." Heero tried again.

Relena gave him a dry look. "Come on, Heero. Don't act all gentlemanly on me. Don't tell me that you weren't annoyed by all those pictures. Even a little bit. Do you remember how many different poses we had to make and plus she made us pose all over the house so there will be a variety of backgrounds."

Heero laughed at her ranting. Relena was really cute when she was annoyed.

"I can't believe your laughing at me." She turned, so she would be facing the road instead of Heero and sat up straighter than usual.

"I wasn't laughing at you," Heero explained softly, he didn't want to get on Relena's bad side right now. He wanted this night to be perfect for her and a happy Relena would be needed for that to be possible. "I was just laughing at the absurdity of the situation. I guess your mom went a little bit overboard. "

"I'm glad you finally agree with me."

"I never disagreed with you. I just didn't think an apology was necessary." He smiled at Relena, goading her to smile also and give up her foul mood.

Relena sighed, Heero was looking so adorable with that smile and those eyes. She couldn't help smiling back at him.

The car settled into a comfortable silence. They were both into their own separate worlds, each with their own expectation for what the night would bring them. However, neither of them expected this.

"Why is the car stopping?" Relena asked as she noticed the car slowed drastically in the middle of the road.

"I don't know what's wrong. This car is in perfect shape." Heero was baffled. "I'll go check out the hood."

Relena observed her surroundings as Heero got out of the car and checked under the hood. They were by the corn fields. There was a part of town where there was only a stretch of corn fields. There were no houses nearby and the last building she noticed was a gas station they passed a couple of miles away.

Heero returned with the same baffled expression on his face. "I don't get it, everything looks fine."

Relena looked around the car, trying to find something. Although, she knew nothing about cars. She just needed to do something to make it look like she was doing something.

"Oh, shit." Heero cursed. He couldn't believe it. How could he possibly forget? He was so nervous about everything that he forgot.

"What? Did you figure it out?" Relena turned her attention towards Heero and followed his line of vision.

"You forgot to gas up the car!" Relena exclaimed, dumbfounded.

* * *

Author's Note:

Hey, I'm back from the Philippines. Thank you all for being patient with me and for showing interest about my trip. I had fun in the Philippines, seeing relatives and visiting all those place. The trip was just tiring. I swear we were traveling every two days or so. We kept on traveling back and forth, province to the city. It took a lot out of me. It took like two weeks for me to get my sleeping cycle back. Thanks you all for the reviews. They were great encouragement. I really needed the encouragement in order to get over my lethargic state.

Thanks to: RayxJade, Reignashii, Remiera, Captain Stu, gundamgirl818, CrimsonDragon010, silvertwighlight, heaven's girl, gundamgurl24, Lauren, gundampilotX24, Bulma BriefsYue Lover, Sanoske & Duo, Taraneh, Lay Hime, Kokoro, kawiineko4eva, PureAngelEnchantress, FluffieGirlie. You guys are awesome!

FluffieGirlie: Two months, two years. . . It doesn't matter. I love hearing from everyone or anyone.

Lay Hime: I was wondering if your offer for editing was still up. I still don't have an editor. I didn't contact you for this chapter 'cuz I'm working on an old computer and I wouldn't have been able to send you the files.

silvertwighlight : I don't know about a whole Trowa fic. This story looks like its going to be longer than I originally thought it would be. I know where I want this story to goes, but it looks like my mind is working faster than my hands.


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